System and method for improving efficiency of a remote computing device

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure discusses system and methods for improving the efficiency of a remote computing device. The system and methods include generate a profile and delivery schedule for the remote computing device. The system can dynamically update the delivery schedule of future requests the system transmits to the remote computing device based on responses to current request.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 as acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/687,050, filed onNov. 18, 2019, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 as acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/544,575, filed onAug. 19, 2019, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 as acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/348,777, filed onNov. 10, 2016, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to and thebenefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/253,470 filed onNov. 10, 2015, each of which is herein incorporated by reference in itsentirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

Remote computing devices can have limited computational and limitedpower resources. A control server may request information from theremote computing device at predetermined intervals. The remote computingdevice's generation of responses to those requests from the server canstrain the limited resources of the remote computing device. Theresponses to the server can be generated irrespective of changes in theenvironment of the remote computing device.

BRIEF SUMMARY

According to one aspect of the disclosure, a method includes generating,by a server that includes one or more processors, a profile associatedwith an application that is executing on a remote computing device. Themethod can also include determining, by the server, a first time atwhich to transmit a first request for application activity update of theapplication. The first determined time can be based on feedback receivedfrom the application. The method can also include transmitting, by theserver, at the first time, the first request for an application activityupdate. The first request can include instructions to provide a triggeron the remote computing device. The method can also include receiving,by the server from the remote computing device and responsive to anactivation of the trigger on the remote computing device, a response.The response can include the application activity update. The method canalso include determining, by the server, a second time at which totransmit a second request for application activity update. The seconddetermined time can be based on content included in the response fromthe remote computing device. The method can also include transmitting,by the server, at the second time, the second request for theapplication activity update from the application.

In some implementations, the method can include launching, responsive tothe activation of the trigger, the application on the remote computingdevice. The method can also include launching the application on theremote computing device responsive to a predetermined action performedon the trigger.

The method can also include maintaining in a memory element, by theserver, for the profile, a log including the content of the response.The method can also include updating, by the server, the memory elementto include content of a second response to the second request in the logfor the profile.

In some implementations, the method can include determining, by theserver, based on the profile associated with the application, a deliverytime schedule that can include the first determined time at which totransmit the first request for application activity update of theapplication and the second determined time at which to transmit thesecond request for application activity update of the application. Themethod can also include updating, by the server, the second timeresponsive to the response that can include the application activityupdate.

The content can include at least one of a location of a remote computingdevice identifier, a battery level of the remote computing device, adelay time that indicates the time between the receipt of the requestand the activation of the trigger, a completion time that indicates atransmission time of the response, or an activation time of the trigger.

The method can also include determining the first time based on theprofile associated with the application executing on the remotecomputing device. The second request for application activity update caninclude a second trigger. The method can include selecting, by theserver, a second application launched responsive to the second trigger.The second application can be different than an application launchedresponsive to the activation of the trigger.

According to another aspect of the disclosure, a system can include oneor more processors coupled with a memory storing processor executableinstructions. Execution of the processor executable instructions by theone or more processors cause the one or more processors to generate aprofile associated with an application that is executing on a remotecomputing device. The system can also determine, based on feedbackreceived from the application, a first time at which to transmit a firstrequest for application activity update of the application. The systemcan also transmit at the first time, the first request for theapplication activity update. The first request can include instructionsto provide a trigger on the remote computing device. The system can alsoreceive from the remote computing device, and responsive to anactivation of the trigger on the remote computing device, a responsethat can include the application activity update. The system can alsodetermine, based on content included in the response from the remotecomputing device, a second time at which to transmit a second requestfor application activity update. The system can transmit at the secondtime, the second request for the application activity update from theapplication.

In some implementations, the system can also launch, responsive to theactivation of the trigger, the application on the remote computingdevice. The system can launch the application on the remote computingdevice responsive to a predetermined action performed on the trigger.

In some implementations, the system can maintain, in a memory element,for the profile, a log that can include the content of the response. Thesystem can also update the memory element to include content of a secondresponse to the second request in the log for the profile.

The system can also determine, based on the profile associated with theapplication, a delivery time schedule comprising the first time at whichto transmit the first request for application activity update of theapplication and the second time at which to transmit the second requestfor application activity update of the application. The system can alsoupdate the second time responsive to the response including theapplication activity update.

In some implementations, the content can include at least one of alocation of a remote computing device identifier, a battery level of theremote computing device, a delay time between receipt of the request andthe activation of the trigger, a completion time comprising atransmission time of the response, or an activation time.

The system can determine the first time based on the profile associatedwith the application executing on the remote computing device. Thesecond request for application activity update can include a secondtrigger. The system can select a second application launched responsiveto the second trigger. The second application is different than anapplication launched responsive to the activation of the trigger.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages ofthe disclosure will become more apparent and better understood byreferring to the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1A is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of a networkenvironment comprising local devices in communication with remotedevices.

FIGS. 1B-1D are block diagrams depicting embodiments of computers usefulin connection with the methods and systems described herein.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a system for improving efficiencyof a remote computing device.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an example method for improvingthe efficiency of a remote computing device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example system for providing emergencyflows.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of an example method for disrupting aneurobehavioral cascade using the system illustrated in FIG. 4.

FIGS. 6-14 illustrate example user interfaces of applications forproviding emergency flows.

FIG. 15 illustrates a block diagram of an example dynamic contentdelivery and presentation management platform.

The features and advantages of the present invention will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings, in which like reference charactersidentify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, likereference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar,and/or structurally similar elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

For purposes of reading the description of the various embodimentsbelow, the following enumeration of the sections of the specificationand their respective contents may be helpful:

Section A describes a network and computing environment which may beuseful for practicing embodiments described herein;

Section B describes embodiments of systems and methods for improving anefficiency of a remote computing device.

A. Network and Computing Environment

In addition to discussing specific embodiments of the present solution,it may be helpful to describe aspects of the operating environment aswell as associated system components (e.g., hardware elements) inconnection with the methods and systems described herein. Referring toFIG. 1A, an embodiment of a network environment is depicted. In briefoverview, the network environment includes one or more clients 1102a-1102 n (also generally referred to as local machine(s) 1102, client(s)1102, client node(s) 1102, client machine(s) 1102, client computer(s)1102, client device(s) 1102, endpoint(s) 1102, or endpoint node(s) 1102)in communication with one or more servers 1106 a-1106 n (also generallyreferred to as server(s) 1106, node 1106, or remote machine(s) 1106) viaone or more networks 1104. In some embodiments, a client 1102 has thecapacity to function as both a client node seeking access to resourcesprovided by a server and as a server providing access to hostedresources for other clients 1102 a-1102 n.

Although FIG. 1A shows a network 1104 between the clients 1102 and theservers 1106, the clients 1102 and the servers 1106 may be on the samenetwork 1104. In some embodiments, there are multiple networks 1104between the clients 1102 and the servers 1106. In one of theseembodiments, a network 1104′ (not shown) may be a private network and anetwork 1104 may be a public network. In another of these embodiments, anetwork 1104 may be a private network and a network 1104′ a publicnetwork. In still another of these embodiments, networks 1104 and 1104′may both be private networks.

The network 1104 may be connected via wired or wireless links. Wiredlinks may include Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), coaxial cable lines, oroptical fiber lines. The wireless links may include BLUETOOTH, Wi-Fi,Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), an infraredchannel or satellite band. The wireless links may also include anycellular network standards used to communicate among mobile devices,including standards that qualify as 1G, 2G, 3G, or 4G. The networkstandards may qualify as one or more generation of mobiletelecommunication standards by fulfilling a specification or standardssuch as the specifications maintained by International TelecommunicationUnion. The 3G standards, for example, may correspond to theInternational Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specification,and the 1G standards may correspond to the International MobileTelecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced) specification. Examples ofcellular network standards include AMPS, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, LTE, LTEAdvanced, Mobile WiMAX, and WiMAX-Advanced. Cellular network standardsmay use various channel access methods e.g. FDMA, TDMA, CDMA, or SDMA.In some embodiments, different types of data may be transmitted viadifferent links and standards. In other embodiments, the same types ofdata may be transmitted via different links and standards.

The network 1104 may be any type and/or form of network. Thegeographical scope of the network 1104 may vary widely and the network1104 can be a body area network (BAN), a personal area network (PAN), alocal-area network (LAN), e.g. Intranet, a metropolitan area network(MAN), a wide area network (WAN), or the Internet. The topology of thenetwork 1104 may be of any form and may include, e.g., any of thefollowing: point-to-point, bus, star, ring, mesh, or tree. The network1104 may be an overlay network which is virtual and sits on top of oneor more layers of other networks 1104′. The network 1104 may be of anysuch network topology as known to those ordinarily skilled in the artcapable of supporting the operations described herein. The network 1104may utilize different techniques and layers or stacks of protocols,including, e.g., the Ethernet protocol, the internet protocol suite(TCP/IP), the ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) technique, the SONET(Synchronous Optical Networking) protocol, or the SDH (SynchronousDigital Hierarchy) protocol. The TCP/IP internet protocol suite mayinclude application layer, transport layer, internet layer (including,e.g., IPv6), or the link layer. The network 1104 may be a type of abroadcast network, a telecommunications network, a data communicationnetwork, or a computer network.

In some embodiments, the system may include multiple, logically-groupedservers 1106. In one of these embodiments, the logical group of serversmay be referred to as a server farm 38 or a machine farm 38. In anotherof these embodiments, the servers 1106 may be geographically dispersed.In other embodiments, a machine farm 38 may be administered as a singleentity. In still other embodiments, the machine farm 38 includes aplurality of machine farms 38. The servers 1106 within each machine farm38 can be heterogeneous—one or more of the servers 1106 or machines 1106can operate according to one type of operating system platform (e.g.,WINDOWS NT, manufactured by Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.), whileone or more of the other servers 1106 can operate on according toanother type of operating system platform (e.g., Unix, Linux, or Mac OSX).

In one embodiment, servers 1106 in the machine farm 38 may be stored inhigh-density rack systems, along with associated storage systems, andlocated in an enterprise data center. In this embodiment, consolidatingthe servers 1106 in this way may improve system manageability, datasecurity, the physical security of the system, and system performance bylocating servers 1106 and high performance storage systems on localizedhigh performance networks. Centralizing the servers 1106 and storagesystems and coupling them with advanced system management tools allowsmore efficient use of server resources.

The servers 1106 of each machine farm 38 do not need to be physicallyproximate to another server 1106 in the same machine farm 38. Thus, thegroup of servers 1106 logically grouped as a machine farm 38 may beinterconnected using a wide-area network (WAN) connection or ametropolitan-area network (MAN) connection. For example, a machine farm38 may include servers 1106 physically located in different continentsor different regions of a continent, country, state, city, campus, orroom. Data transmission speeds between servers 1106 in the machine farm38 can be increased if the servers 1106 are connected using a local-areanetwork (LAN) connection or some form of direct connection.Additionally, a heterogeneous machine farm 38 may include one or moreservers 1106 operating according to a type of operating system, whileone or more other servers 1106 execute one or more types of hypervisorsrather than operating systems. In these embodiments, hypervisors may beused to emulate virtual hardware, partition physical hardware,virtualize physical hardware, and execute virtual machines that provideaccess to computing environments, allowing multiple operating systems torun concurrently on a host computer. Native hypervisors may run directlyon the host computer.

Hypervisors may include VMware ESX/ESXi, manufactured by VMWare, Inc.,of Palo Alto, Calif.; the Xen hypervisor, an open source product whosedevelopment is overseen by Citrix Systems, Inc.; the HYPER-V hypervisorsprovided by Microsoft or others. Hosted hypervisors may run within anoperating system on a second software level. Examples of hostedhypervisors may include VMware Workstation and VIRTUALBOX.

Management of the machine farm 38 may be de-centralized. For example,one or more servers 1106 may comprise components, subsystems and modulesto support one or more management services for the machine farm 38. Inone of these embodiments, one or more servers 1106 provide functionalityfor management of dynamic data, including techniques for handlingfailover, data replication, and increasing the robustness of the machinefarm 38. Each server 1106 may communicate with a persistent store and,in some embodiments, with a dynamic store.

Server 1106 may be a file server, application server, web server, proxyserver, appliance, network appliance, gateway, gateway server,virtualization server, deployment server, SSL VPN server, or firewall.In one embodiment, the server 1106 may be referred to as a remotemachine or a node. In another embodiment, a plurality of nodes 290 maybe in the path between any two communicating servers.

Referring to FIG. 1B, a cloud computing environment is depicted. A cloudcomputing environment may provide client 1102 with one or more resourcesprovided by a network environment. The cloud computing environment mayinclude one or more clients 1102 a-1102 n, in communication with thecloud 1108 over one or more networks 1104. Clients 1102 may include,e.g., thick clients, thin clients, and zero clients. A thick client mayprovide at least some functionality even when disconnected from thecloud 1108 or servers 1106. A thin client or a zero client may depend onthe connection to the cloud 1108 or server 1106 to providefunctionality. A zero client may depend on the cloud 1108 or othernetworks 1104 or servers 1106 to retrieve operating system data for theclient device. The cloud 1108 may include back end platforms, e.g.,servers 1106, storage, server farms or data centers.

The cloud 1108 may be public, private, or hybrid. Public clouds mayinclude public servers 1106 that are maintained by third parties to theclients 1102 or the owners of the clients. The servers 1106 may belocated off-site in remote geographical locations as disclosed above orotherwise. Public clouds may be connected to the servers 1106 over apublic network. Private clouds may include private servers 1106 that arephysically maintained by clients 1102 or owners of clients. Privateclouds may be connected to the servers 1106 over a private network 1104.Hybrid clouds 1108 may include both the private and public networks 1104and servers 1106.

The cloud 1108 may also include a cloud based delivery, e.g. Software asa Service (SaaS) 1110, Platform as a Service (PaaS) 1112, andInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS) 1114. IaaS may refer to a userrenting the use of infrastructure resources that are needed during aspecified time period. IaaS providers may offer storage, networking,servers or virtualization resources from large pools, allowing the usersto quickly scale up by accessing more resources as needed. Examples ofIaaS include AMAZON WEB SERVICES provided by Amazon.com, Inc., ofSeattle, Wash., RACKSPACE CLOUD provided by Rackspace US, Inc., of SanAntonio, Tex., Google Compute Engine provided by Google Inc. of MountainView, Calif., or RIGHTSCALE provided by RightScale, Inc., of SantaBarbara, Calif. PaaS providers may offer functionality provided by IaaS,including, e.g., storage, networking, servers or virtualization, as wellas additional resources such as, e.g., the operating system, middleware,or runtime resources. Examples of PaaS include WINDOWS AZURE provided byMicrosoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., Google App Engine provided byGoogle Inc., and HEROKU provided by Heroku, Inc. of San Francisco,Calif. SaaS providers may offer the resources that PaaS provides,including storage, networking, servers, virtualization, operatingsystem, middleware, or runtime resources. In some embodiments, SaaSproviders may offer additional resources including, e.g., data andapplication resources. Examples of SaaS include GOOGLE APPS provided byGoogle Inc., SALESFORCE provided by Salesforce.com Inc. of SanFrancisco, Calif., or OFFICE 365 provided by Microsoft Corporation.Examples of SaaS may also include data storage providers, e.g. DROPBOXprovided by Dropbox, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif., Microsoft SKYDRIVEprovided by Microsoft Corporation, Google Drive provided by Google Inc.,or Apple ICLOUD provided by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.

Clients 1102 may access IaaS resources with one or more IaaS standards,including, e.g., Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Open CloudComputing Interface (OCCI), Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface(CIMI), or OpenStack standards. Some IaaS standards may allow clientsaccess to resources over HTTP, and may use Representational StateTransfer (REST) protocol or Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).Clients 1102 may access PaaS resources with different PaaS interfaces.Some PaaS interfaces use HTTP packages, standard Java APIs, JavaMailAPI, Java Data Objects (JDO), Java Persistence API (JPA), Python APIs,web integration APIs for different programming languages including,e.g., Rack for Ruby, WSGI for Python, or PSGI for Perl, or other APIsthat may be built on REST, HTTP, XML, or other protocols. Clients 1102may access SaaS resources through the use of web-based user interfaces,provided by a web browser (e.g. GOOGLE CHROME, Microsoft INTERNETEXPLORER, or Mozilla Firefox provided by Mozilla Foundation of MountainView, Calif.). Clients 1102 may also access SaaS resources throughsmartphone or tablet applications, including, for example, SalesforceSales Cloud, or Google Drive app. Clients 1102 may also access SaaSresources through the client operating system, including, e.g., Windowsfile system for DROPB OX.

In some embodiments, access to IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS resources may beauthenticated. For example, a server or authentication server mayauthenticate a user via security certificates, HTTPS, or API keys. APIkeys may include various encryption standards such as, e.g., AdvancedEncryption Standard (AES). Data resources may be sent over TransportLayer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

The client 1102 and server 1106 may be deployed as and/or executed onany type and form of computing device, e.g. a computer, network deviceor appliance capable of communicating on any type and form of networkand performing the operations described herein. FIGS. 1C and 1D depictblock diagrams of a computing device 1100 useful for practicing anembodiment of the client 1102 or a server 1106. As shown in FIGS. 1C and1D, each computing device 1100 includes a central processing unit 1121,and a main memory unit 1122. As shown in FIG. 1C, a computing device1100 may include a storage device 1128, an installation device 1116, anetwork interface 1118, an I/O controller 1123, display devices 1124a-1124 n, a keyboard 1126 and a pointing device 1127, e.g. a mouse. Thestorage device 1128 may include, without limitation, an operatingsystem, software, and a software of a behavioral change platform (BCM)1120. As shown in FIG. 1D, each computing device 1100 may also includeadditional optional elements, e.g. a memory port 1103, a bridge 1170,one or more input/output devices 1130 a-1130 n (generally referred tousing reference numeral 1130), and a cache memory 1140 in communicationwith the central processing unit 1121.

The central processing unit 1121 is any logic circuitry that responds toand processes instructions fetched from the main memory unit 1122. Inmany embodiments, the central processing unit 1121 is provided by amicroprocessor unit, e.g.: those manufactured by Intel Corporation ofMountain View, Calif.; those manufactured by Motorola Corporation ofSchaumburg, Ill.; the ARM processor and TEGRA system on a chip (SoC)manufactured by Nvidia of Santa Clara, Calif.; the POWER7 processor,those manufactured by International Business Machines of White Plains,N.Y.; or those manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale,Calif. The computing device 1100 may be based on any of theseprocessors, or any other processor capable of operating as describedherein. The central processing unit 1121 may utilize instruction levelparallelism, thread level parallelism, different levels of cache, andmulti-core processors. A multi-core processor may include two or moreprocessing units on a single computing component. Examples of amulti-core processors include the AMD PHENOM IIX2, INTEL CORE i5 andINTEL CORE i7.

Main memory unit 1122 may include one or more memory chips capable ofstoring data and allowing any storage location to be directly accessedby the microprocessor 1121. Main memory unit 1122 may be volatile andfaster than storage 1128 memory. Main memory units 1122 may be Dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM) or any variants, including static randomaccess memory (SRAM), Burst SRAM or SynchBurst SRAM (BSRAM), Fast PageMode DRAM (FPM DRAM), Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM), Extended Data Output RAM(EDO RAM), Extended Data Output DRAM (EDO DRAM), Burst Extended DataOutput DRAM (BEDO DRAM), Single Data Rate Synchronous DRAM (SDR SDRAM),Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM), orExtreme Data Rate DRAM (XDR DRAM). In some embodiments, the main memory1122 or the storage 1128 may be non-volatile; e.g., non-volatile readaccess memory (NVRAM), flash memory non-volatile static RAM (nvSRAM),Ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), Phase-changememory (PRAM), conductive-bridging RAM (CBRAM),Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (SONOS), Resistive RAM (RRAM),Racetrack, Nano-RAM (NRAM), or Millipede memory. The main memory 1122may be based on any of the above described memory chips, or any otheravailable memory chips capable of operating as described herein. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 1C, the processor 1121 communicates with mainmemory 1122 via a system bus 1150 (described in more detail below). FIG.1D depicts an embodiment of a computing device 1100 in which theprocessor communicates directly with main memory 1122 via a memory port1103. For example, in FIG. 1D the main memory 1122 may be DRDRAM.

FIG. 1D depicts an embodiment in which the main processor 1121communicates directly with cache memory 1140 via a secondary bus,sometimes referred to as a backside bus. In other embodiments, the mainprocessor 1121 communicates with cache memory 1140 using the system bus1150. Cache memory 1140 typically has a faster response time than mainmemory 1122 and is typically provided by SRAM, BSRAM, or EDRAM. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 1D, the processor 1121 communicates withvarious I/O devices 1130 via a local system bus 1150. Various buses maybe used to connect the central processing unit 1121 to any of the I/Odevices 1130, including a PCI bus, a PCI-X bus, or a PCI-Express bus, ora NuBus. For embodiments in which the I/O device is a video display1124, the processor 1121 may use an Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) tocommunicate with the display 1124 or the I/O controller 1123 for thedisplay 1124. FIG. 1D depicts an embodiment of a computer 1100 in whichthe main processor 1121 communicates directly with I/O device 1130 b orother processors 1121′ via HYPERTRANSPORT, RAPIDIO, or INFINIBANDcommunications technology. FIG. 1D also depicts an embodiment in whichlocal busses and direct communication are mixed: the processor 1121communicates with I/O device 1130 a using a local interconnect bus whilecommunicating with I/O device 1130 b directly.

A wide variety of I/O devices 1130 a-1130 n may be present in thecomputing device 1100. Input devices may include keyboards, mice,trackpads, trackballs, touchpads, touch mice, multi-touch touchpads andtouch mice, microphones, multi-array microphones, drawing tablets,cameras, single-lens reflex camera (SLR), digital SLR (DSLR), CMOSsensors, accelerometers, infrared optical sensors, pressure sensors,magnetometer sensors, angular rate sensors, depth sensors, proximitysensors, ambient light sensors, gyroscopic sensors, or other sensors.Output devices may include video displays, graphical displays, speakers,headphones, inkjet printers, laser printers, and 3D printers.

Devices 1130 a-1130 n may include a combination of multiple input oroutput devices, including, e.g., Microsoft KINECT, Nintendo Wiimote forthe WIT, Nintendo WII U GAMEPAD, or Apple IPHONE. Some devices 1130a-1130 n allow gesture recognition inputs through combining some of theinputs and outputs. Some devices 1130 a-1130 n provides for facialrecognition which may be utilized as an input for different purposesincluding authentication and other commands. Some devices 1130 a-1130 nprovides for voice recognition and inputs, including, e.g., MicrosoftKINECT, SIRI for IPHONE by Apple, Google Now or Google Voice Search.

Additional devices 1130 a-1130 n have both input and outputcapabilities, including, e.g., haptic feedback devices, touchscreendisplays, or multi-touch displays. Touchscreen, multi-touch displays,touchpads, touch mice, or other touch sensing devices may use differenttechnologies to sense touch, including, e.g., capacitive, surfacecapacitive, projected capacitive touch (PCT), in-cell capacitive,resistive, infrared, waveguide, dispersive signal touch (DST), in-celloptical, surface acoustic wave (SAW), bending wave touch (BWT), orforce-based sensing technologies. Some multi-touch devices may allow twoor more contact points with the surface, allowing advanced functionalityincluding, e.g., pinch, spread, rotate, scroll, or other gestures. Sometouchscreen devices, including, e.g., Microsoft PIXELSENSE orMulti-Touch Collaboration Wall, may have larger surfaces, such as on atable-top or on a wall, and may also interact with other electronicdevices. Some I/O devices 1130 a-1130 n, display devices 1124 a-1124 nor group of devices may be augment reality devices. The I/O devices maybe controlled by an I/O controller 1123 as shown in FIG. 1C. The I/Ocontroller may control one or more I/O devices, such as, e.g., akeyboard 1126 and a pointing device 1127, e.g., a mouse or optical pen.Furthermore, an I/O device may also provide storage and/or aninstallation medium 1116 for the computing device 1100. In still otherembodiments, the computing device 1100 may provide USB connections (notshown) to receive handheld USB storage devices. In further embodiments,an I/O device 1130 may be a bridge between the system bus 1150 and anexternal communication bus, e.g. a USB bus, a SCSI bus, a FireWire bus,an Ethernet bus, a Gigabit Ethernet bus, a Fibre Channel bus, or aThunderbolt bus.

In some embodiments, display devices 1124 a-1124 n may be connected toI/O controller 1123. Display devices may include, e.g., liquid crystaldisplays (LCD), thin film transistor LCD (TFT-LCD), blue phase LCD,electronic papers (e-ink) displays, flexile displays, light emittingdiode displays (LED), digital light processing (DLP) displays, liquidcrystal on silicon (LCOS) displays, organic light-emitting diode (OLED)displays, active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays,liquid crystal laser displays, time-multiplexed optical shutter (TMOS)displays, or 3D displays. Examples of 3D displays may use, e.g.stereoscopy, polarization filters, active shutters, or autostereoscopy.Display devices 1124 a-1124 n may also be a head-mounted display (HMD).In some embodiments, display devices 1124 a-1124 n or the correspondingI/O controllers 1123 may be controlled through or have hardware supportfor OPENGL or DIRECTX API or other graphics libraries.

In some embodiments, the computing device 1100 may include or connect tomultiple display devices 1124 a-1124 n, which each may be of the same ordifferent type and/or form. As such, any of the I/O devices 1130 a-1130n and/or the I/O controller 1123 may include any type and/or form ofsuitable hardware, software, or combination of hardware and software tosupport, enable or provide for the connection and use of multipledisplay devices 1124 a-1124 n by the computing device 1100. For example,the computing device 1100 may include any type and/or form of videoadapter, video card, driver, and/or library to interface, communicate,connect or otherwise use the display devices 1124 a-1124 n. In oneembodiment, a video adapter may include multiple connectors to interfaceto multiple display devices 1124 a-1124 n. In other embodiments, thecomputing device 1100 may include multiple video adapters, with eachvideo adapter connected to one or more of the display devices 1124a-1124 n. In some embodiments, any portion of the operating system ofthe computing device 1100 may be configured for using multiple displays1124 a-1124 n. In other embodiments, one or more of the display devices1124 a-1124 n may be provided by one or more other computing devices1100 a or 1100 b connected to the computing device 1100, via the network1104. In some embodiments software may be designed and constructed touse another computer's display device as a second display device 1124 afor the computing device 1100. For example, in one embodiment, an AppleiPad may connect to a computing device 1100 and use the display of thedevice 1100 as an additional display screen that may be used as anextended desktop. One ordinarily skilled in the art will recognize andappreciate the various ways and embodiments that a computing device 1100may be configured to have multiple display devices 1124 a-1124 n.

Referring again to FIG. 1C, the computing device 1100 may comprise astorage device 1128 (e.g. one or more hard disk drives or redundantarrays of independent disks) for storing an operating system or otherrelated software, and for storing application software programs such asany program related to the software for the delivery scheduler 206.Examples of storage device 1128 include, e.g., hard disk drive (HDD);optical drive including CD drive, DVD drive, or BLU-RAY drive;solid-state drive (SSD); USB flash drive; or any other device suitablefor storing data. Some storage devices may include multiple volatile andnon-volatile memories, including, e.g., solid state hybrid drives thatcombine hard disks with solid state cache. Some storage device 1128 maybe non-volatile, mutable, or read-only. Some storage device 1128 may beinternal and connect to the computing device 1100 via a bus 1150. Somestorage device 1128 may be external and connect to the computing device1100 via an I/O device 1130 that provides an external bus. Some storagedevice 1128 may connect to the computing device 1100 via the networkinterface 1118 over a network 1104, including, e.g., the Remote Disk forMACBOOK AIR by Apple. Some client devices 1100 may not require anon-volatile storage device 1128 and may be thin clients or zero clients1102. Some storage device 1128 may also be used as an installationdevice 1116, and may be suitable for installing software and programs.Additionally, the operating system and the software can be run from abootable medium, for example, a bootable CD, e.g. KNOPPIX, a bootable CDfor GNU/Linux that is available as a GNU/Linux distribution fromknoppix.net.

Client device 1100 may also install software or application from anapplication distribution platform. Examples of application distributionplatforms include the App Store for iOS provided by Apple, Inc., the MacApp Store provided by Apple, Inc., GOOGLE PLAY for Android OS providedby Google Inc., Chrome Webstore for CHROME OS provided by Google Inc.,and Amazon Appstore for Android OS and KINDLE FIRE provided byAmazon.com, Inc. An application distribution platform may facilitateinstallation of software on a client device 1102. An applicationdistribution platform may include a repository of applications on aserver 1106 or a cloud 1108, which the clients 1102 a-1102 n may accessover a network 1104. An application distribution platform may includeapplication developed and provided by various developers. A user of aclient device 1102 may select, purchase and/or download an applicationvia the application distribution platform.

Furthermore, the computing device 1100 may include a network interface1118 to interface to the network 1104 through a variety of connectionsincluding, but not limited to, standard telephone lines LAN or WAN links(e.g., 802.11, T1, T3, Gigabit Ethernet, Infiniband), broadbandconnections (e.g., ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM, Gigabit Ethernet,Ethernet-over-SONET, ADSL, VDSL, BPON, GPON, fiber optical includingFiOS), wireless connections, or some combination of any or all of theabove. Connections can be established using a variety of communicationprotocols (e.g., TCP/IP, Ethernet, ARCNET, SONET, SDH, Fiber DistributedData Interface (FDDI), IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac CDMA, GSM, WiMax and directasynchronous connections). In one embodiment, the computing device 1100communicates with other computing devices 1100′ via any type and/or formof gateway or tunneling protocol e.g. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) orTransport Layer Security (TLS), or the Citrix Gateway Protocolmanufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The networkinterface 1118 may comprise a built-in network adapter, networkinterface card, PCMCIA network card, EXPRESSCARD network card, card busnetwork adapter, wireless network adapter, USB network adapter, modem orany other device suitable for interfacing the computing device 1100 toany type of network capable of communication and performing theoperations described herein.

A computing device 1100 of the sort depicted in FIGS. 1B and 1C mayoperate under the control of an operating system, which controlsscheduling of tasks and access to system resources. The computing device1100 can be running any operating system such as any of the versions ofthe MICROSOFT WINDOWS operating systems, the different releases of theUnix and Linux operating systems, any version of the MAC OS forMacintosh computers, any embedded operating system, any real-timeoperating system, any open source operating system, any proprietaryoperating system, any operating systems for mobile computing devices, orany other operating system capable of running on the computing deviceand performing the operations described herein. Typical operatingsystems include, but are not limited to: WINDOWS 2000, WINDOWS Server2012, WINDOWS CE, WINDOWS Phone, WINDOWS XP, WINDOWS VISTA, and WINDOWS7, WINDOWS RT, and WINDOWS 8 all of which are manufactured by MicrosoftCorporation of Redmond, Wash.; MAC OS and iOS, manufactured by Apple,Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.; and Linux, a freely-available operatingsystem, e.g. Linux Mint distribution (“distro”) or Ubuntu, distributedby Canonical Ltd. of London, United Kingdom; or Unix or other Unix-likederivative operating systems; and Android, designed by Google, ofMountain View, Calif., among others. Some operating systems, including,e.g., the CHROME OS by Google, may be used on zero clients or thinclients, including, e.g., CHROMEBOOKS.

The computer system 1100 can be any workstation, telephone, desktopcomputer, laptop or notebook computer, netbook, ULTRABOOK, tablet,server, handheld computer, mobile telephone, smartphone or otherportable telecommunications device, media playing device, a gamingsystem, mobile computing device, or any other type and/or form ofcomputing, telecommunications or media device that is capable ofcommunication. The computer system 1100 has sufficient processor powerand memory capacity to perform the operations described herein. In someembodiments, the computing device 1100 may have different processors,operating systems, and input devices consistent with the device. TheSamsung GALAXY smartphones, e.g., operate under the control of Androidoperating system developed by Google, Inc. GALAXY smartphones receiveinput via a touch interface.

In some embodiments, the computing device 1100 is a gaming system. Forexample, the computer system 1100 may comprise a PLAYSTATION 3, orPERSONAL PLAYSTATION PORTABLE (PSP), or a PLAYSTATION VITA devicemanufactured by the Sony Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, a NINTENDO DS,NINTENDO 3DS, NINTENDO WII, or a NINTENDO WII U device manufactured byNintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, an XBOX 360 device manufactured bythe Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.

In some embodiments, the computing device 1100 is a digital audio playersuch as the Apple IPOD, IPOD Touch, and IPOD NANO lines of devices,manufactured by Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif. Some digital audioplayers may have other functionality, including, e.g., a gaming systemor any functionality made available by an application from a digitalapplication distribution platform. For example, the IPOD Touch mayaccess the Apple App Store. In some embodiments, the computing device1100 is a portable media player or digital audio player supporting fileformats including, but not limited to, MP3, WAV, M4A/AAC, WMA ProtectedAAC, AIFF, Audible audiobook, Apple Lossless audio file formats and.mov, .m4v, and .mp4 MPEG-4 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC) video file formats.

In some embodiments, the computing device 1100 is a tablet e.g. the IPADline of devices by Apple; GALAXY TAB family of devices by Samsung; orKINDLE FIRE, by Amazon.com, Inc. of Seattle, Wash. In other embodiments,the computing device 1100 is an eBook reader, e.g. the KINDLE family ofdevices by Amazon.com, or NOOK family of devices by Barnes & Noble, Inc.of New York City, N.Y.

In some embodiments, the communications device 1102 includes acombination of devices, e.g. a smartphone combined with a digital audioplayer or portable media player. . For example, one of these embodimentsis a smartphone, e.g. the IPHONE family of smartphones manufactured byApple, Inc.; a Samsung GALAXY family of smartphones manufactured bySamsung, Inc.; or a Motorola DROID family of smartphones. In yet anotherembodiment, the communications device 1102 is a laptop or desktopcomputer equipped with a web browser and a microphone and speakersystem, e.g. a telephony headset. In these embodiments, thecommunications devices 1102 are web-enabled and can receive and initiatephone calls. In some embodiments, a laptop or desktop computer is alsoequipped with a webcam or other video capture device that enables videochat and video call.

In some embodiments, the status of one or more machines 1102, 1106 inthe network 1104 is monitored, generally as part of network management.In one of these embodiments, the status of a machine may include anidentification of load information (e.g., the number of processes on themachine, CPU and memory utilization), of port information (e.g., thenumber of available communication ports and the port addresses), or ofsession status (e.g., the duration and type of processes, and whether aprocess is active or idle). In another of these embodiments, thisinformation may be identified by a plurality of metrics, and theplurality of metrics can be applied at least in part towards decisionsin load distribution, network traffic management, and network failurerecovery as well as any aspects of operations of the present solutiondescribed herein. Aspects of the operating environments and componentsdescribed above will become apparent in the context of the systems andmethods disclosed herein.

B. Systems and Methods for Improving an Efficiency of a Remote ComputingDevice

Remote computing devices, also referred to as remote devices or clientdevices have finite computational resources and power resources. This isespecially true for portable computing devices or computing devices thatare not continuously receiving power from a power source. Moreover,computing devices may have limited computation resources, includingprocessing capabilities, memory resources as well as data caps on howmuch data the computing device can transmit and receive over acommunications network. Some computing devices, such has smartphones,tablets, among others may be configured to execute multiple applicationson the same device and therefore, allocate the computing device'scomputing resources across the multiple applications. An applicationthat consumes a lot of computing resources of the computing device canadversely affect the performance of the computing device as well as hogresources from other applications, thereby adversely affecting theperformance of other applications on the computing device.

Application developers have to pay close attention when designing anddeveloping their application to the computer resources required toexecute their application. Some of the parameters that applicationdevelopers need to keep in mind are the size of the application (theamount of memory required to store the application), the computingresources of the computing device the application needs, the frequencyat which the computing resources are needed, the amount of power thosecomputer resources will consume to allow the application to functionproperly, the amount of data received from a server communicating withthe application and the amount of data transmitted by the application tothe server, among others.

In some implementations, systems that provide remote monitoring viaremote computing devices face similar challenges. The remote computingdevices can be located in areas where the remote computing devices donot have access to a continuous power supply, have data caps, or thebandwidth over which these computing devices are quite small thatsending large amounts of data can adversely affect the performance ofthe both the system and the computing devices. Moreover, these remotecomputing devices may be designed to have very limited computingresources in an effort to reduce power consumption as well as the costto produce or manufacture these remote computing devices.

In some implementations, the remote computing devices can be designed toprovide data to a server configured to collect data from the remotecomputing devices. The system can send, to each of the remote computingdevices, requests for activity data of the remote computing devices.Each time a remote computing device receives a request for activityupdate from the server, the remote computing device can collect currentdata and transmit back a response with the collected data. As such, eachtime the remote computing device receives a request for activity update,the remote computing device expends power and utilizes computing andnetwork resources. In remote computing devices that operate using abattery not connected to a continuous power supply, the remote computingdevice has limited power and therefore, within a single charge of thebattery, provide a finite number of responses to the server.

In some implementations, these remote computing devices can be used tosense environmental conditions around the remote computing devices andreport back the sensed conditions to the server. Each time the remotecomputing devices receive a request and transmit back a response, theremote computing devices consume power. In implementations where theseremote computing devices do not have access to continuous power, therecan be a desire to reduce power consumption. Moreover, in someimplementations, these remote computing devices may be placed inenvironments where the devices may not be retrievable and as such, maybe discarded, disposed or rendered useless once the power stored intheir battery is depleted. As such, there is a desire to prolong thebattery life of the remote computing device, or stated in another way,keep the remote computing device accessible to the server for a longerperiod of time or improve the efficiency of the remote computing device.

The present solution provides systems and methods that can improve theefficiency of remote computing devices. Remote computing devices, alsoreferred to as remote devices or client devices, can include a number ofconstraints. The constraints can include limitations to battery powerand processor power. The present solution can generate a dynamic timeschedule to control the transmission of messages to the remote computingdevices. The dynamic time schedule can be generated responsive to aprofile associated with the remote computing device. Based on responsesfrom the remote computing device, the present solution can update thedynamic time schedule such that the messages are transmitted to theremote computing device less frequently or at more appropriate times.

The present solution can also improve the efficiency of the server. Thegeneration of the messages described herein can consume computationalpower of the server. The generation of a large number of messages cangenerate significant computational strain on the server. The generationof the messages according to a predefined schedule (e.g., at the top ofevery hour) can also result in significant computational strain.Additional strain is also incurred as the server processes the returnedresponses to each of the messages. The present solution can improve theperformance of the server by dynamically updating a message deliveryschedule. By updating the schedule dynamically for each messagerecipient, the message generation may occur more evenly throughout theday rather than concentrated at specific intervals. Also, the presentsolution improves efficiency by not generating messages where thelikelihood of a response from a remote device is below a predeterminedthreshold. By generating fewer messages, the server also savescomputational power by not having to processes as many incomingresponses.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a system 200 for improvingefficiency of a remote computing device. The system 200 includes aserver 202 and a plurality of remote computing devices 102. The server202 includes hardware and/or software and is configured to bring aboutthe improved efficiency of the remote computing devices. The serverincludes a database 204 and a delivery scheduler 206. The deliveryscheduler 206 includes a change prediction manager 208 and a triggermanager 212. The database 204 can include a profile entry 210 for eachof the remote computing devices 102. The remote computing devices 102are in communication with the server 202 via the network 104.

The remote computing devices 102 can be internet enabled remote devices.For example, the remote computing devices 102 can be internet of things(“IoT”) devices. The IoT devices can include remote monitoring devicesthat include remote motion sensors, temperature sensors, soil conditionsensors, or video cameras. In some implementations, the remote computingdevices 102 can be mobile computing devices (or components thereof) suchas cell phones, smart phones, laptops, and tablet computers. The remotecomputing devices 102 can have limited computational power. The remotecomputing devices 102 can also have a limited power supply, such as abattery. The remote computing devices 102 can be configured to beawoken, pinged, messaged or otherwise contacted at predeterminedintervals to make measurements, perform activities, or provide responsesto requests for information. In some implementations, the remotecomputing devices 102 can be configured to receive requests at regular,predetermined intervals. Receiving requests at the regular,predetermined intervals can reduce the efficiency of the remotecomputing devices 102 because receiving requests can require additionalbattery power and computational power when processing and/or generatingthe responses including sensor readings made when the remote computingdevice 102 receives the requests.

The change prediction manager 208 is configured to generate anddynamically update a delivery time schedule. The change predictionmanager 208 can generate the delivery time schedule based on current andprevious data provided by a remote computing device 102 and also basedon data collected from a population of remote computing devices 102(e.g., the other remote computing devices 102 in the system 100). Thechange prediction manager 208 can predict times to transmit requests forupdates from the remote computing devices 102. The requests can be foran update of activity of an application executing on the remotecomputing devices 102. The request can include a trigger that causes theapplication on the remote computing device 102 to execute apredetermined routine such as making a temperature measurement ordisplaying a predetermined user interface on a display of the remotecomputing device 102. The determination of the times in the deliverytime schedule can be both dynamic and adaptive. The change predictionmanager 208 can dynamically predict times when transmitting an updaterequest to a remote computing device 102 can increase efficiency of theremote computing device. For example, for a remote temperature sensor,the change prediction manager 208 can determine not to transmit updaterequests during times the change prediction manager 208 predicts thetemperature will remain relatively constant and can select times for thetransmission of update requests when the change prediction manager 208predicts there will be relatively greater amounts of variability in theremote temperature. Over time, the change prediction manager 208 canadapt to the changing responses form the remote computing device 102.For example, and continuing the above example, even during times ofrelatively higher variability, as the change prediction manager 208develops models of the temperature patterns, the change predictionmanager 208 may reduce the frequency that update requests aretransmitted to the remote computing device 102.

In generating the delivery schedule for a remote computing device 102,the delivery scheduler 206 can use data relating to the remote computingdevice 102 and can also use data from other remote computing devices 102to calculate trend data of remote computing devices 102 performing thesame or similar operations. For example, the change prediction manager208 may measure and model the responses of other remote computingdevices 102 to determine general trends in the responses that may aid inthe prediction of times to send a message to a specific remote computingdevice 102.

The delivery scheduler 206 can also include the trigger manager 212. Thetrigger manager 212 can be any script, file, program, application, setof instructions, or computer-executable code, that is configured toselect and configure the triggers that are provided to the remotecomputing devices 102 in requests from the server 202. The triggers caninclude instructions that are executed by the remote computing device102 after the remote computing device 102 receives the request thatincludes the trigger. In some implementations, the remote computingdevice 102 can be in a sleep, inactive, low power, or non-active statebefore receipt of the request. Once the remote computing device 102receives the request, the remote computing device 102 can execute anapplication or other subroutine as instructed by the trigger. Thetrigger can cause an application executing on the remote computingdevice 102 to generate a response to the request. The response caninclude an application activity update and other content. The content ofthe application activity update can include a remote computing deviceidentifier, a battery level of the remote computing device, a delaytime, a completion time, or an activation time. The delay time can bethe amount of time between the remote computing device's receipt of therequest and the time the trigger was executed. In an example where theremote computing device 102 is a smart phone displaying a message orother notification to a user, the delay time can be the amount of timebetween when the message is displayed to the user and an action is takenon the message. The completion time can be the time when the triggeredapplication completes the triggered subroutine or a response ismeasured. The activation time can indicate the time that the applicationis activated. For example, for a remote temperature sensor, theactivation time can include the time the temperature measurement begins.In an example where the remote computing device 102 is a smart phonedisplaying a message or other notification, the activation time can bethe time the message if first displayed.

The server 202 can also include a database 204 that can store a profile210 for each of the remote computing devices 102 of the system 200. Theprofile can be a table that includes entries for identification of aspecific remote computing device 102 (e.g., a unique serial number),response content (e.g., the content of previously received responses torequests from the server 202), related profiles, and a schedule ofdelivery times as generated by the delivery scheduler 206. The relatedprofile entry of the profile 210 can include pointers to or theidentification of profiles related to the current entry. For example,for the profile of a remote monitoring device, the related profiles maybe the profiles of the other devices located at the same location. For asmart phone, the related profiles may be the profiles of smart phonesassociated with the friends of the user corresponding to the currententry.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an example method 300 forimproving the efficiency of a remote computing device. The method 300can include generating, by a server including one or more processors, aprofile associated with an application executing on a remote computingdevice (BLOCK 302). The method 300 can include determining a first timeat which to transmit a first request for application activity update ofthe application (BLOCK 304). The method 300 can include transmitting, atthe first time, the first request for application activity update (BLOCK306). The method 300 can include receiving, from the remote computingdevice, a response including the application activity update (BLOCK308). The method 300 can include determining, based on content includedin the response from the remote computing device, a second time at whichto transmit a second request to the remote computing device (BLOCK 310).The method 300 can include transmitting, at the second time, the secondrequest to the remote computing device (BLOCK 312).

As set forth above, the method 300 can include generating a profile thatis associated with an application executing on the remote computingdevice (BLOCK 302). The profile can be maintained in a database storedin a memory element of a server that is in electronic communication withthe remote computing device. The profile can include device informationabout the remote computing device, such as the device's computationalpower and batter levels.

The profile can include indications of profiles of related remotecomputing devices. The profile can also include a delivery timeschedule. The delivery time schedule can include a plurality of times atwhich server transmits messages to the remote computing device.Initially, the delivery time schedule can include default times based onthe device information and other information included in the profile.During the course of the method 300, the times of the delivery timeschedule can be updated based on responses from the remote computingdevice.

The method 300 can also include determining a first time to transmit arequest to the remote computing device (BLOCK 304). The server candetermine the first time based on information or feedback provided by anapplication executing on the remote computing device. In someimplementations, the first time can be based on the default or initialtime of the delivery time schedule. For example, the remote computingdevice can be a remote temperature sensor. The server can determine atime to transmit a first request for an application activity update fromthe application executed on the remote temperature sensor. Based on thetemperature sensor's profile, the delivery scheduler can determine thatthe temperature sensor is placed within an office building and canselect a first time that is during business hours.

The method 300 can also include transmitting the first request to theremote computing device at the first time (BLOCK 306). The request canbe a request for an application activity update. The request can includea trigger that can cause the remote computing device to open apredetermine application or routine. For example, for the temperaturesensor, the trigger can cause a temperature sensor's application tostart a routine that measures the environmental temperature andtransmits the current temperature to the server.

The method 300 can also include receiving, from the remote computingdevice, a response to the request (BLOCK 308). The response can includecontent from the application executing on the remote computing device.The content can include the application activity update, which for aremote temperature sensor may be an updated temperature reading. Thecontent can also include at least one of a location of the remotecomputing device identifier, a battery level of the remote computingdevice, a delay time, a completion time, or an activation time. Theserver can maintain the returned content in a log or profile associatedwith the remote computing device. The response can be generated by theapplication based on a predetermined action performed on the trigger.For example, the trigger can cause the generation of generation of amessage on the screen of a remote computing device's screen. Thepredetermined action can include a user input made in response to thedisplayed message.

The method 300 can also include determining, based on the response, asecond time to transmit a second request (BLOCK 310). In someimplementations, determining the second time can include updating asubsequent time previously stored in the time delivery schedule that isassociated with the remote computing device. As described above, thedelivery scheduler can dynamically determine times for the transmissionof requests or other messages to a remote computing device. The deliveryscheduler can determine times to improve the efficiency of the remotecomputing device. Based on the received responses, the deliveryscheduler can generate a model that predicts the content of futureresponses from the remote computing device. The delivery scheduler canuse machine learning, neural networks, or regression models to predictthe future responses from the remote computing device. In someimplementations, the delivery scheduler can select times to sendrequests to the remote computing device based the variability level ofthe model. For example, for a remote temperature sensor, the deliveryscheduler can select times when the temperature is more likely tofluctuate and less likely to select times when the environmentaltemperature is more likely to be constant.

The method 300 can also include transmitting a second request to theremote computing device at the second time (BLOCK 312). The secondrequest can be a request for an application activity update. The secondrequest can include a trigger that can cause the remote computing deviceto open a predetermine application or subroutine. For example, for thetemperature sensor. The trigger can cause a temperature sensor'sapplication to start a subroutine that measures the environmentaltemperature and transmits the current temperature to the server. In someimplementations, the second request can provide a trigger differenttrigger than the type of trigger provided with the first request.

The present solution can be implemented in a system for healthmonitoring or drug delivery via connected remote medical computingdevices that can monitor patient health and activity in a remotesetting. The system can communicate with a portable computing device,such as a smartphone of a patient, which can be communicatively coupledto a plurality of sensors monitoring various health parameters of thepatient. These sensors can include a heart rate sensor, a pedometer, apulse oximetry sensor, a temperature sensor, motion sensor, and a bodyposture sensor for detecting a current position of the patient. Inaddition, the system can be communicatively coupled to a medicamentdelivery device configured to deliver a medicament to a patient. Each ofthe plurality of sensors may include batteries that may be replaceableor rechargeable. These sensors may be programmed to either collectmeasurements on a periodic basis or responsive to a request from theclient device

The portable computing device includes one or more processors, a memoryelement and an application stored in the memory element and configuredto execute on the portable computing device. In one example of a healthmonitoring system, the smartphone of a patient can communicate with aplurality of sensors positioned around the patient's body or medicalequipment. In this example system, the system can include one or morepulse oximeters, heart rate monitors, temperature sensors that monitorthe vitals of the patient and actuators that control the activity ofmedical devices associated with the patient.

The server can generate an initial time delivery schedule that includesa plurality of times at which the server transmits messages to thepatient's smart phone. As described above, the messages can includetriggers. In this example, the triggers can launch applications orroutines that cause the smartphone to poll the patient's sensors orcontrol the medical devices. In some implementations, initially thetriggers associated with each of the messages can include monitoringfocused triggers. The monitoring focused triggers can cause theapplication to measure the status of patient via the sensors. Forexample, the monitoring focused triggers can cause the smartphone tolaunch an application that measures, via the sensors, the patient'stemperature, blood oxygenation, or heart rate. The smartphone can thentransmit the sensor data to the server. In some implementations, thesmartphone can perform local computations on the sensor data prior totransmitting the data to the server.

The server can update the timing of the messages and the type oftriggers associated with each of the messages responsive to the returneddata. For example, receiving data that indicates that the patient'sblood oxygenation is low, the server can dynamically update the nextmessage to transmit to the patient's smartphone sooner than originallyscheduled. The server can also change the message's trigger from amonitoring focused trigger to an action focused trigger. For example,noticing the low blood oxygenation, a trigger that activates oxygen flowto the patient can be included in the message. The trigger can betransmitted to the smartphone. Receiving the message and activating thetrigger, the smartphone can launch a routine that wirelessly activates acontrol valve of an oxygen tank supplying oxygen to the patient.Activating the control valve can enable additional oxygen to flow to thepatient to counter the low blood oxygenation.

In some implementations, the above described server 202 is a dynamiccontent delivery and presentation management platform that transmitsrequests to user's mobile devices. As described above, the requestsinclude triggers that can cause an application executing on the mobiledevice to display one or more messages. In some implementations, wherethe remote computing device is displaying information, such as anotification or message, on the display of the remote computing device,waking the remote computing device at the regular, predeterminedintervals can create “message blindness.” Message blindness can includethe situation when a user of the remote computing device begins toignore messages displayed on the remote computing device because theyoccur too frequently, not at the proper time, or with non-relevantinformation. As described herein, the server can select times totransmit requests or messages to the remote computing device based onwhen they are pertinent, which increases the efficiency of the remotecomputing device because the device does not respond have to respond tomessages that provide little additional benefit. Selecting opportunetimes for message delivery can also reduce message blindness because themessage are transmitted to the remote computing device at times when theuser is most likely to act on the message. Increasing the efficiency ofthe mobile device can include increasing the length of time the mobiledevice can remain on without being charged, reducing the amount ofbattery consumption due to activity from the server 202, reducing theamount of network bandwidth consumed by the mobile device, reducing theamount of data or requests the mobile device receives from the server,among others. For example, by delivering fewer requests at dynamicallyselected times instead of sending more requests at fixed periods oftime, the server can improve the battery life of the mobile device. Insome implementations, the messages displayed in response to triggers arereferred to as emergency flows. An emergency flow can include a set ofroutines or procedures to help users mitigate experiences which may leadto undesirable neurobehavioral cascades—such as cravings and otherwithdrawal symptoms of a smoking cessation attempt. Impulses, such ascravings and other withdrawal symptoms can generally be referred to asemergencies. An impulse can include any desire, urge, symptom, or otherindication that may cause a user to want to voluntarily or involuntarilyact or react. The emergency flows are provided to the user when the userexperiences an impulse, or otherwise indicates that the user isexperiencing an emergency, or when another user of social relevanceexperiences an emergency. Other impulses can include withdrawalsymptoms, side effects of pharmacologic treatments, lapses, resistances,physiological states (e.g., nausea), psychological states (e.g.,emotions and sentiments, such as depression), and behavioral changes(e.g., abnormal sleep). The emergency flows are configured to providethe user with “just-in-time-interventions” (JITIs) that help mitigateher emergencies or the emergencies of others. The emergency flows canmitigate the emergencies by providing the user with a gateway tohighlight and access the most likely tools the user may use in responseto the emergencies.

For example, external (and internal) stimulus can trigger a sentimentthat can lead to a behavior. This behavior can in turn act as a stimulusfor another behavior, and so on, causing a cascade of neurobehavioralevents that can ultimately result in a habit-forming chain ofundesirable behaviors (a neurobehavioral cascade). The emergency flowsof the behavioral change platform can help the user identify and carryout actions that would provide an environment in which the user isunlikely to fall into an undesirable neurobehavioral cascade—using, forexample, the above described missions. If the user does begin aneurobehavioral cascade, the emergency flows displayed on the user'sdevice in response to triggers from the behavioral change platform canprovide a JITI that helps avert the neurobehavioral cascade. Theinterface of the present disclosure can provide the user with an“emergency button” that enables the user to be presented with anemergency flow when an emergency, such as a craving, presents itself tothe user.

FIG. 15 illustrates a block diagram of an example dynamic contentdelivery and presentation management platform 820. In someimplementations, the dynamic content delivery and presentationmanagement platform 820 can be similar to the behavioral change platform120. The dynamic content delivery and presentation management platform820 includes a messaging agent 802, a dynamic activity routinegeneration agent 804, reporting agent 806 and a dynamic message scheduleagent 808. The platform 820 can also include a database 204 that storesprofile information corresponding to each of a plurality of applicationsinstalled on remote computing devices, such as the remote computingdevice 102. The profile information of each application can include adelivery schedule 836, an activity update log 834, as well as profiletype related information 832.

The platform 820 can be configured to communicate with a plurality ofremote computing devices 102. Each of the remote computing devices 102can include an application 842 configured to enable the remote computingdevice 102 to communicate with the dynamic content delivery andpresentation management platform 820. The application 842 can include areporting agent 842 and a activity routine presentation module 844.

The messaging agent 802 can be configured to generate messages fortransmission to the remote computing device 102. The messaging agent 802can be configured to generate messages for respective applications 842executing on the plurality of remote computing devices 102 with whichthe platform 820 is configured to communicate. The messaging agent 802can be configured to generate the messages according to a deliveryschedule 836. The delivery schedule can be generated by the dynamicmessage schedule agent 808 as will be described below.

The messaging agent 802 can further be configured to update a profile830 of the application 842 each time the messaging agent 802 sends amessage to the remote computing device associated with the application842. The messaging agent 802 can update the activity update log 832 ofthe profile 830 to include a message identifier uniquely identifying themessage, the content included in the message and the date and time atwhich the message was transmitted. In some implementations, themessaging agent 802 can identify the delivery chanel over which themessage was transmitted, for instance, SMS, push notification, email,among others. The messaging agent 802 can update the activity update logeach time the messaging agent sends a message to the remote computingdevice 842.

The messages generated by the messaging agent can include content and atrigger. The content can include text. The trigger can include a link,URL, or other instruction, which when activated at the remote computingdevice 102, causes the remote computing device to launch a particularresource of the application 842 installed on the remote computing device102. Details regarding the resource of the application that is launchedare described below. The messaging agent 802 can transmit the messagesto the remote computing device 102 via a push messaging service, acellular communications network, or a cellular data network, amongothers.

On the remote computing device, the message can be received as anotification, a message or as any other type of communication. Themessage can be displayed on a screen of the computing device 102. Themessage can include the trigger, which when activated (by a click, tap,or other activation mechanism), the remote computing device can becaused to launch the particular resource of the application and displaythe particular resource within an environment of the application on theremote computing device.

The activity routine presentation module 844 of the application 842,responsive to the application being launched via the trigger, can beconfigured to transmit a request to the platform 820 indicating that theapplication was launched via a trigger included in the message. In someimplementations, the activity routine presentation module 844 caninclude the message identifier of the message in the request. Themessage identifier of the message can be used by the platform 820 todetermine which message transmitted by the messaging agent 802 causedthe application to be launched on the client device. In addition, therequest can include a time at which the application was launched.

Responsive to the request being received by the platform 820, themessaging agent 802 can update the activity update log of the profile830 to include data indicating that the trigger of the messageidentified by the message identifier was activated and the time at whichit was activated.

The dynamic activity routine generation agent 804 can be configured todetermine that the application is launched at the remote computingdevice via the trigger via the request transmitted by the remotecomputing device. The dynamic activity routine generation agent 804 canthen determine a profile associated with the application 842 of theremote computing device 102 (via the message identifier or any otheridentifier identifying either the remote computing device 102 or theapplication 842). The dynamic activity routine generation agent 804 canthen identify a profile type associated with the application andprevious activity data associated with the application to determine, oneor more activities routines to provide the application 842 forpresentation at the remote computing device.

The dynamic activity routine generation agent 804 can be configured toselect one or more activity routines from a activity routines table 838including a list of activity routines stored in the database 204. Eachof the activity routines stored in the table 838 can be tagged with oneor more profile types. The dynamic activity routine generation agent 804can be configured to access the table 838 and generate a subset of thelist of activity routines by removing activity routines that are nottagged with the profile type 834 of the profile. The dynamic activityroutine generation agent 804 can then further remote activity routinesfrom the subset based on previous performance history of the activityroutine on the application 842 of the particular remote computing device102. In some implementations, the dynamic activity routine generationagent 804 may remove activity routines previously provided to theapplication that were either not activated at the application, or ifthey were activated, were either not completed or indicated as notworking.

The dynamic activity routine generation agent 804 can then select one ormore activity routines from the subset of activity routinescorresponding to the application 842 and generate a response to therequest that includes the activity routines or one or more identifiersidentifying the activity routines. The response is then transmitted tothe remote computing device 102.

The activity routine presentation module 844 can be configured toreceive the activity routines or the identifiers thereof, and togenerate an activity routine presentation that includes links to the oneor more activity routines included or identified in the response. Theactivity routine presentation module 844 can then cause the remotecomputing device 102 to present the activity routine presentation withinthe environment of the application.

The activity routine presentation module 844 can then track activity ofthe application and interactions with the one or more links to theactivity routines. The activity routine presentation module 844 can beconfigured to cause one or more of the activity routines to execute onthe application responsive to detecting an interaction with the one ormore links to the activity routines.

The reporting agent 842 can be configured to monitor the activityroutines executing within the application. In some implementations, thereporting agent 842 can monitor a time at which the activity routine wasinitiated, a time at which the activity routine was completed, a time atwhich the activity routine was interrupted by another computer functionoccurring in another process of the computing device, or a time at whichthe activity routine was paused or stopped due to an interaction withinthe environment of the application. In some implementations, thereporting agent 842 can generate one or more messages to send reportingdata to the platform 820.

The reporting agent 806 of the dynamic content delivery and presentationmanagement platform 820 can associate the received reporting data withthe transmitting remote computing device 102 and store the receivedreporting data in the profile 830 maintained on the database 204.

The dynamic message schedule agent 808 can be configured to generate,update and maintain the delivery schedule 810 stored in the profile 830that is maintained on or within the database 204. The dynamic messageschedule agent 808 can be configured to generate a message schedule forremote computing devices on which an application of the platform 820 isinstalled. The dynamic message schedule agent 808 can be configured toaccess the database 204 and identify the profiles associated with eachof the applications of the platform 820 installed on the plurality ofremote computing devices 102. For each profile, the dynamic messageschedule agent 808 can generate an initial delivery schedule 836. Theinitial delivery schedule can include a number of preset times at whichmessages are to be transmitted to the remote computing device. In someimplementations, the dynamic message schedule agent is configured tolimit the number of messages that can be transmitted to the remotecomputing device associated with the profile in a predetermined timeperiod, for instance, 4 messages in a 24 hour time period.

Responsive to generating the initial delivery schedule, the platform820, via the messaging agent 802, delivers messages according to theinitial delivery schedule. As messages are transmitted and activityupdates related to the messages are received by the platform 102 fromthe remote computing device for the messages, the activity updates arestored in the activity update log by the messaging agent 802 or thereporting agent 806.

The dynamic message schedule agent 808 can then monitor, for eachmessage transmitted to the application 842, a time at which the messagewas transmitted, a time at which the message was accessed, a time atwhich the trigger included in the message was activated (if at all), andwhether an activity routine was executed on the application responsiveto presenting the one or more activity routines via the activity routinepresentation module 844.

The dynamic message schedule agent 808 can then determine, based on theactivity data associated with each of the messages, adjustments to thetimes at which the messages were transmitted. In some implementations,the times included in the initial delivery schedule can be changed tomatch the time at which the trigger included in the particular messagewas actually activated. In some implementations, the times included inthe initial delivery schedule can be changed to be closer to the timethe trigger was activated. By updating the delivery schedule andmonitoring for additional activity updates based on the messagestransmitted according to the updated delivery schedule, the dynamicmessage schedule agent can iteratively improve the message schedule totransmit messages at the most opportune times to facilitate applicationusage and reducing the number of unwanted, unopened or undesiredmessages. Moreover, the iterative improvements to the dynamic messageschedule based on prior activity on previously sent messages can furtherreduce the time between a message being transmitted to the remotecomputing device and the time at which the trigger in the message isactivated.

It should be appreciated that the dynamic activity routine generationagent 804 can also be configured to improve the selection of activityroutines to provide to the remote device based on the past performanceof the activity routines. By iteratively sending activity routines andmonitoring activity on the activity routines, the dynamic routinegeneration agent 804 can improve the selection of activity routines andfurther reduce the number of unwanted, unopened, or undesired routinesdelivered to the remote computing device. By identifying low performanceroutines for each remote computing device, the dynamic activity routinegeneration agent 804 can reduce computer resource consumption whendetermining which activity routines to select as the subset of activityroutines to select from and/or parse through is reduced.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an example behavioral changeplatform 120. The behavioral change platform 120 includes hardwareand/or software and is configured to bring about behavioral changes inusers of the behavioral change platform 120. The behavioral changeplatform 120 includes a plurality of modules, components or otherentities that execute within the behavioral change platform 120. Thecomponents of the behavioral change platform 120 can includeapplications, programs, libraries, scripts, services, processes, tasksand/or any type and form of executable instructions executing on adevice, such as a mobile device, computer, or server. The behavioralchange platform 120 can include any of the components of the otherbehavioral change platforms 120 described herein. The behavioral changeplatform 120 can include a user database 702, supporter database 704,and socialized financial incentive campaign manager 700. The behavioralchange platform 120 can also include an emergency flow manager 716. Theemergency flow manager 716 can include a craving control manager 718, acheck-in manager 720, a trigger manager 722, and a sentiment manager724.

The user database 702 of the behavioral change platform 120 can includesa plurality of tables and entries for each of the users of thebehavioral change platform 120. In some implementations, the databasecan include information about each of the users seeking to use thebehavioral change platform 120 to change one or more behaviors. Examplesof behaviors can include smoking, dietary behavior, such as uncontrolledeating, drug use, or other dependency-related disorders that have acraving-withdrawal effect. Such behaviors may be habit forming and mayhave an addiction component to them. In other implementations, thebehaviors can include behaviors the user wishes to begin, such asworking out, attending classes, or eating a healthier diet. In someimplementations, the behaviors can be related to personality traits, forexample, schizophrenia, bipolar, and other mood disorders. In someimplementations, the behaviors can be related to personal hygiene orother personal habits. The information about each of the users can bestored in a user entry 714. The entry 714 can be an implementation ofthe profile 210. Each user entry 714 in the user database 702 caninclude information about the user, such as, an end date by which timethe user would like to implement the behavioral change; a support totalthat can indicate the total amount of financial incentives the user'ssupporters have pledged to date; a current stage in the behavioralmodification processes; and actions—e.g., missions, habits, strategies,preventative strategies, etc.—that can be or have been performed by theuser to help divert the user's attention to emergencies.

The behavioral change platform 120 can also include a supporter database704. The supporter database 704 can include one or more tables havingentries for each of the users listed in the user database 702.Information regarding supporters of a specific user can be stored in oneor more tables having entries linked to the specific user. For example,the user may ask for family members and loved ones to support the userin the journey to achieving a predetermined behavioral endpoint. In someimplementations, the user's journey toward a behavioral endpoint orattempt to change a habit together with their broadcasting of thatjourney to supporters of their choosing is referred to as a campaign.The supporters can provide encouragement to the user to help the userreach the behavioral endpoint. In some implementations, the supporterscan provide financial incentives to the user if the user reaches thebehavioral endpoint. For example, a first supporter of a user may pledgeto give the user $100 and a second supporter of the user may pledge togive the user $50 if the user quits smoking. In other implementations,the supporters can provide data to the behavioral change platform 120,such as indications that the supporter witnessed the user engaging in anundesirable behavior (e.g., smoking).

In some implementations, the supporter can be an entity, such as acompany, rather than a person. For example, the supporter may be aninsurance company, a physician's practice, or a gym. The entity cansponsor the user's campaign but rely on individual sponsors to validatewhether the user actually achieved the predetermined behavioralendpoint. In this way, the entity does not need to spend resources toindependently determine whether the user has achieved the behavioralendpoint, but rather, can leverage the information provided by othervested sponsors to validate that the user did achieve the predeterminedbehavioral endpoint.

As an overview of the emergency flow manager 716, the emergency flowmanager 716 can be any script, file, program, application, set ofinstructions, or computer-executable code, that is configured to enablethe behavioral change platform 120 on which the emergency flow manager716 is executed to mitigate negative emergencies using cognitivebehavior therapies. The behavioral change platform 120 helps modify auser's behavior by providing the user with acknowledgement, connection,empowerment, reaction, and reflection cognitive cues. Theacknowledgement cues can be an initial message presented to the user,and can acknowledge, in simple language, what the user is experiencing.These messages can draw on the knowledge the user built during theirquit journey and can bring awareness to the emergency.

The behavioral change platform 120 can also provide the user with aconnection cue, which can allow the user to contextualize her experiencewithin the broader realm of all of her peers' experiences. Theconnection cue can help the user know that the user has support fromsupporters and is not alone. The connection cue can help prevent orrestrict a negative sentiment from triggering an onset of an undesirableneurobehavioral cascade. This connection cue can draw upon the user'ssense of connectedness the user has gathered over a quit journey. Theconnection cue can also be in the form of words and maps. In the former,quotes relevant to the emergency attributed to well-regarded persons canserve to remind the user that the user is not alone. In the latter, theuser can visualize experiencing similar emergencies geospatially andtemporally proximate to the user. In some implementations, the emergencyflow manager 716 can be configured to generate a map that includes aplurality of nodes, each representative of a user of the behavioralchange platform 120. The nodes can represent users who are geospatiallyproximate to the user and that have indicated experiencing similaremergencies within a predetermined time period relative to a time atwhich the user indicated an emergency. The empowerment cue is configuredto help the user stop neurobehavioral cascades. The empowerment cue caninclude a message that helps remind the user of past strengths (e.g.,overcoming life challenges in the past), present values (e.g., quitmotivations through words or pictures), and a possible desirable future(e.g., showing potential gains to health, money, or willpower if theuser overcomes the emergency). This empowerment message can draw uponthe user's motivation and willpower gained during the quit journey. Thereaction cue presents a list of contextual, intelligently-orderedactions the user can take to alter the likelihood that points her awayfrom an undesirable neurobehavioral cascades and towards desirable orhealthy ones. For example, the reaction cue can suggest specificstrategies the user has developed through the quit journey—e.g., breathedeeply when anxious. The strategies can draw upon a user's full bank ofKnowledge, Motivation, Willpower, and Connectedness gained through thequit journey. The reflect cue can provide the user with a mechanism tointrospect on the way the emergency was handled. At a minimum, thereflect cue includes a mechanism to report whether the emergency avertedan undesirable neurobehavior cascade—completing a feedback loop thatfurthers the effectiveness of emergency flows in future episodes. Thereflect cue may also include mechanisms to identify the triggers thatset off the emergency and strategies for minimizing the occurrenceand/or causal power of those triggers in future. The emergency flow canalso enlist other users to contribute connect, empowerment, and reactioncues in response to a user's emergency.

The emergency flow manager 716 of the behavioral change platform 120 canreceive inputs about the user's habits and actions, or make predictionsthereof, and generate emergency flows that can help the user mitigatesymptoms. The craving control manager 718 can be any script, file,program, application, set of instructions, or computer-executable code,that is configured to enable the behavioral change platform 120 on whichthe craving control manager 718 is executed to determine when anemergency flow should be provided to the user. In some implementations,the determinations made by the craving control manager 718 to provideemergency flows to the user can be based on self-reported indicationsfrom the user (e.g., the user requesting an emergency flow through theuse of the emergency button) or based on a prediction (e.g., the user isfeeling anxious, which can often lead to the user experiencing anemergency, such as a craving).

In some implementations, the user can select an emergency flow fordisplay. In other implementations, the craving control manager 718 canselect the emergency flow for presentation to the user. For example, theuser may not know what type of emergency flow would allay the impulsethe user is experiencing. Based on the user's history, the controlmanager 718 can rank and select the emergency flow based on theprobability that the emergency flow can help abate the user's currentimpulse. The determination of what emergency flow to present to the usercan be based on a policy that defines what emergency flow is presentedto the user for a given impulse. In other implementations, thedetermination of what emergency flow to present to the user is adaptiveand changes along the user's quit journey. The emergency flows can becategorized as abating flows, delaying flows, and rationing flows. Anabating flow may stop the neurobehavioral cascade and help the user notengage in the behavior the user is trying to stop. For example, if theuser is trying quit smoking, the abating flow may present a mission tothe user such as a breathing exercise to help the user not give in to acraving to smoke a cigarette. In a delaying flow, the user may beallowed to engage in the undesired behavior, but only after apredetermined delay. For example, the user may be allowed to smoke acigarette, but only after a 5-minute wait. In some implementations,after the wait, the user may decide if the craving has passed and notsmoke the cigarette. In some implementations, as the user interacts withthe behavioral change platform 120 more, the delay time may increasewith each presentation of a delaying flow. The rationing flow may allowthe user to engage in the undesired behavior; however, the user may onlybe allowed to enter this flow a predetermined number of times during agiven time period. For example, the rationing flow may be presented tothe user 5 times during a day—each time allowing the user to smoke onecigarette each time. As the user continues to use the behavioral changeplatform 120, the ration (for instance, a daily ration) may be reducedeach day. In some implementations, when the user is presented a delayingflow and engages in the undesirable behavior after the delay, thedelayed flow may count toward the number of times the rationing flow canbe presented to the user.

The emergency flow manager 716 can also include a check-in manager 720.The check-in manager 720 can be any script, file, program, application,set of instructions, or computer-executable code, that is configured toenable the behavioral change platform 120 on which the check-in manager720 is executed to present questions to the user randomly or atpredetermined times during the day. The questions may ask the user tolog the number of times the user engaged in the undesirable behaviorduring the day. The questions can be presented to the user to cause theuser to report the occurrences of the undesirable behavior that the userdidn't enter into the behavioral change platform 120. For example, atthe end of the day, the check-in manager 720 may request the user enterthe total number of cigarettes the user smoked during the day. Thecheck-in manager 720 can also present questions to the user about theuser's emotional, behavior, and physiological state. The questions aboutthe user's state may be presented to the user at random intervals,predefined intervals, or the user may enter the state information attimes of choosing by the user. The states can include the occurrence ofa craving, anxiety, depressions, lack of focus, abnormal sleep,headache, distractions, restlessness, abnormal breathing, headaches, orany combination thereof. The check-in manager 720 can generate thequestions that are presented to the user by executing a questionnairepolicy. The questionnaire policy can include a number of rules andquestions associated therewith. For example, the questions can bepre-generated and stored in a lookup table. Executing the questionnairepolicy enables the check-in manager 720 to select the appropriatequestions from the lookup table to display on a mobile device of theuser. In some implementations, the questions displayed by the behavioralchange platform 120 are generated responsive to inputs received by thebehavioral change platform 120. For example, the check-in manager 720may process the user entry 714 stored in the user database 702 with alearning algorithm to generate questions that are tailored to the dataof the user.

The trigger manager 722 can be any script, file, program, application,set of instructions, or computer-executable code, that is configured toenable the behavioral change platform 120 on which the trigger manager722 is executed to predict when the user may need to be presented withan emergency flow. The predictions made by the trigger manager 722 canbe based on the information obtained or received from the check-inmanager 720. The predictions can also be based on data about the userstored in the user database 702, such as what stage in the quick journeythe user is (e.g., precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action,and maintenance, termination) on and what missions the user hascompleted. In some implementations, the trigger manager 722 candetermine to present the emergency flows to the user based onself-reported indications from the user or socially reported indicationsfrom supporters of the user. In some implementations, the triggermanager 722 can be a component of the predictive analysis module 2described above. The trigger manager 722 can make predictions on when topresent an emergency flow to the user using machine learning algorithmsthat take as input the time that previous cessation emergenciesoccurred, the user's current location, the user's social setting, andthe user's state of mind.

The emergency flow manager 716 can also include a sentiment manager 724.The sentiment manager 724 can be any script, file, program, application,set of instructions, or computer-executable code, that is configured toenable the behavioral change platform 120 on which the sentiment manager724 is executed to enable users of the behavioral change platform 120 toshare experiences and support one another. For example, the sentimentmanager 724 can generate real-time stimuli of notes, messages, and mediathat are viewable to other users of the behavioral change platform 120.The sentiment manager 724 can present the stimuli to the user via theGUI of an application executing on a smart phone. The GUI can includeone or more content slots into which the stimuli are placed by thesentiment manager 724. In some implementations, the sentiment manager724 selects one or more stimuli from a stimulus database to generate acustomized feed for the user of the behavioral change platform 120. TheGUI can include a limited number of content slots, and the sentimentmanager 724 can select the most relevant stimuli to the user for displayin the content slots. In some implementations, the sentiment manager 724can also reposition or reorganize the placement of the stimuli intodifferent content slots based on the limited display area of the GUI oran updated ranking of the relevance of the stimuli. The sentimentmanager 724 can select, for example, 10 stimuli that meet apredetermined criteria. The criteria can include the stimuli labeledwith sentiments, intensities, or a combination thereof that match or areclose to that of the user. The user can also post messages to thecommunity using a freeform textbox. The user can post messages via atextbox displayed on the user's smartphone or other client device aboutpast emergencies, current emergencies, and positive experiences inovercoming emergencies. In some implementations, when the user posts astimulus to the community via the sentiment manager 724, the sentimentmanager 724 can automatically append a time, date, the user's quit day,the user's current emergency, type of emergency, and intensity ofemergency, whether the user is using a quit aid, or any combinationthereof.

In some implementations, the sentiment manager 724 can pair users withpositive sentiments or experiences with users currently experiencingnegative sentiments. In some implementations, the sentiment manager 724matches positive sentiment messages to users that are currentlyexperiencing negative sentiments. In some implementations, the sentimentmanager 724 can use a neural network to determine if the stimulus theuser contributes is negative or positive, and in some implementations,the user can select a negative or positive sentiment button to identifytheir contributed content as negative or positive sentiment stimuli. Thesentiment manager 724 can maintain one or more databases into which thepositive and negative sentiment stimuli are stored. For example, thenegative sentiment stimuli can be stored in a first database and thepositive sentiment stimuli can be stored in a second database or thepositive and negative sentiment stimuli can be stored in the samedatabase and be flagged to indicate whether they are positive ornegative. The sentiment manager 724 can then retrieve positive ornegative sentiment stimuli from the respective databases by performing atable lookup. In some implementations, the negative sentiment users canrank displayed stimuli for their relevance in abating the emergency. Forexample, the users can rank stimuli from 0-2. Those receiving a scorebelow a predetermined threshold—for example, 0.5—may not be shown toadditional users.

In some implementations, the sentiment manager 724 can pair positivesentiment users with negative sentiment users, and the positivesentiment users can provide encouragement to the negative sentimentusers. For example, the positive sentiment user may be paired with someother users to provide messages. The positive sentiment user may beprovided a text that states “You are helping users experiencing [a typeof emergency, feeling, or emotion],” and the user may then be providedwith a text box to enter a message to help the negative sentiment user.

In other implementations, the sentiment manager 724 can also enableusers to assist one another during emergencies. In addition to userssharing messages, the sentiment manager 724 can also enable users toshare support media (e.g., SMS messages, photos, videos), a digitaltouch (e.g., an Apple Watch heartbeat message), or diversions (e.g., atelephone call or playing a digital game together). In someimplementations, the sentiment manager 724 can randomly match negativesentiment and positive sentiment users. In other implementations, theusers can self-organize groups that contribute supportive messages,media, digital touches, or diversions to one another.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of an example method 742 fordisrupting a neurobehavioral cascade. The method 742 can includereceiving an indication of a desire to reach a behavioral endpoint(BLOCK 744). The method 742 can also include receiving an occurrence ofa cessation emergency (BLOCK 746). The method 742 can also includeselecting an emergency flow and providing the emergency flow to the user(BLOCK 748). The method 742 can also include updating the user databasewhen the user completes an emergency flow (BLOCK 750).

As set forth above, the method 742 can include disrupting aneurobehavioral cascade by receiving an indication of a desire to reacha behavior endpoint (BLOCK 744). The indication can be received by thebehavioral change platform 120 from a user. The user can interact withthe behavioral change platform 120 through a mobile application or awebsite. For example, the behavioral change platform 120 may interfacewith a mobile application, when the user signs into the application forthe first time, the application can ask the user what habit (orendpoint) the user would like to start (e.g., what good habit the userwould like to start, such as exercising regularly) or stop (e.g., whatbad habit the user would like to stop, such as smoking). FIG. 6illustrates an example interface 752 of a mobile application that theuser can interact with to provide the behavioral change platform with adesire to reach a behavioral endpoint (e.g., quitting smoking) and adate by which to achieve that behavioral endpoint.

The method 742 can also include receiving an indication of theoccurrence of a cessation emergency (BLOCK 746). In someimplementations, the indication is based on a prediction made by thetrigger manager 722 of the behavioral change platform 120. For example,based on input provided to the check-in manager 720 by the user, thetrigger manager 722 may determine that the user typically experiences anemergency around 2 PM each day, and a prediction may be made that anemergency flow should be provided to the user at 1:55 PM. In otherimplementations, the indication may be generated responsive to a userinput. For example, an application executing on a user's mobile devicemay include an “emergency button” that generates and sends theindication to the behavioral change platform 120.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example interface 754 of a mobile application withan emergency button 756. Responsive to selecting the emergency button756, the user can be presented with an interface that enables the userto selected which of an abating flow, delaying flow, and rationing flowthe user would like use. In some implementations, the emergency button756 can also be used to input lapses, such as smoking a cigarette, andsentiments, such as the user's state at different times. The lapse inputand the sentiment input may be entered into by doubling tapping theemergency button 756.

In some implementations, the emergency button 756 is presented via amobile device in a manner that reduces the number of steps the user musttake to select or activate the emergency button 756. The emergencybutton 756 can be presented directly on the home screen, the lockscreen, or notification menu of the user's mobile device or smart watchsuch that the user does not need to open an application to access theemergency button 756. For example, the emergency button 756 can bedisplayed as a widget on the lock-screen, home screen, or notificationbar of a smart phone. In other implementations, the emergency button 756can be accessed by long pressing or deep pressing the icon of the mobileapplication associated with the behavioral change platform 120. Theemergency button 756 can be the user's primary location for interactingwith the behavioral change platform 120. For example, when the userexperiencing any type of impulse, sentiment, emotion, awareness, orother type of emergency the user can select the emergency button 756 toquickly gain access to one or more emergency flows. In yet otherimplementations, the emergency button 756 can presented to the user inan always present notification bar or as a time-sensitive notification.The time-sensitive notification may be presented to the user when thetrigger manager 722 or predictive analysis module 2 of the behavioralchange platform 120 determines the user is most likely to experience acraving, impulse, sentiment, or physiological or psychological statethat is likely to result in an undesirable behavior. For example, thepredictive analysis module 2 can predict when the user may experience acraving using previous and current data provided by the user and otherusers of the behavioral change platform 120. For example, the predictiveanalysis module 2 of the behavioral change platform 120 may analyze theprevious occurrences of the user's cravings and detect times in the daywhen the cravings are most likely to occur. The predictive analysismodule 2 may also use location and setting based information dodetermine when cravings are more likely to happen. For example, acraving for a cigarette may be relatively more likely to occur when at abar or at the user's home than compared to when the user is at work (oranother location where smoking is not allowed). In general, each of thedifferent methods of presenting the emergency button 756 to the user areconfigured to increase the ease of use and the likelihood the user willuse the emergency button 756. Increasing the ease of use, and thus theengagement of the user, enables the behavioral change platform 120 to bemore accurate in its predictions before the use is more likely to inputthe occurrence of cravings.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example interface 758 for selecting a type offlow. As illustrated, the interface 758 includes a separate button foreach of the possible emergency flow types. The interface 758 includes anabating flow button 760 a, a rationing flow button 760 b, and a delayflow button 760 c. The interface 758 also includes a connect message inthe form of a timer 762 that indicates to the user how long the user'semergencies last on average and how much time is remaining until theemergency will likely pass. The interface 758 also includes anacknowledgment message “you are experiencing a craving.”

Referring to FIG. 5, the method 742 can also include providing anemergency flow to the user (BLOCK 748). In some implementations, theemergency flows can include one or more of the missions, strategies, andpreventative strategies described herein. The missions can be mechanismsof action, such as activities, that can help the user deal withemergencies, such as cravings, or can provide distractions for the userwhen the user faces an emergency. The missions can include games,breathing exercises, physical exercise, and quizzes. The missions can beof any module type of intervention as highlighted earlier in thedocument—controlled breathing, social engagement, treatment adherence,digital diversions, among others. In some implementations, thebehavioral change platform 120 can select a mission most likely to helpthe user end the present neurobehavioral cascade and resist the craving,impulse, or other emergency. The emergency flows can be provided to theuser via an application executing on the user's mobile device that is incommunication with the behavioral change platform 120.

In some implementations, the emergency flows are personalized for theindividual user. For example, and as described above, the user mayprogress along a journey to change a behavior. The behavioral changeplatform 120 can employ a machine learning algorithm to determine whichemergency flow to present to the user. The machine learning algorithmcan select an emergency flow for presentation to the user that has thehighest probability of helping abate the user's impulse. The machinelearning algorithm bases the prediction on data stored in the user'sprofile. The data used by the machine learning algorithm can include:the present type of impulse experienced by the user, the types ofemergency flows previously presented to the user, the success rate ofeach of the previously presented emergency flows in abating the user'simpulses, the user's progress along a quit journey, the time of day thepast impulses occurred, the location of the user when past impulsesoccurred and other environmental and behavioral factors. At differentstages of the journey, different emergency flows may be presented to theuser. For example, in one of the first stages of the quit journey asdescribed above, the craving to engage in an undesirable behavior may begreater than during later stages. Accordingly, emergency flows presentedduring the early stages of the quit journey may be configured tomitigate the stronger emergencies. In one example, during a first stage,the user may be presented with an emergency flow that includes a missionto go for a 10 minute walk responsive to the appearance of the craving.In a later stage of this example, when the user is further along thequit journey the presented mission may include a breathing exercise. Thepersonalization of the emergency flows can also correspond to thepersonalization of the emergency button 756. For example, when a userpresses the emergency button 756, a number of possible emergency flowswith different missions may be presented to the user. The selection ofthe emergency flows to present to the user can be based on the past andpresent user data as described below.

The behavioral change platform 120 may determine which emergency flow topresent to the user using the staging module 6 and the emergency flowmanager 716. The staging module 6 may assess how confident the user is(for example, does the user believe they can quit), how motivated theuser is (for example, does the user have strong reasons to quit), howresilient the user is (for example, has the user tried to quit before),how knowledgeable the user is (for example, does the user have a solidunderstanding of pros and cons of quitting and smoking, withdrawalsymptoms and how to address them), and how skilled the user is (forexample, does the user have mechanisms to deal with cravings,withdrawal, and anxiety) when determining what type of emergency flow topresent to the user. After the presentation of an emergency flow, thebehavioral change platform 120 can be configured to receive input of howeffective the emergency flow was in mitigating the emergency. Theeffectiveness of each of the emergency flows can also be used by thebehavioral change platform 120 when generating a personalized emergencyflow.

In some implementations, the emergency flow is generated responsive tothe user's neurological profile. The neurological profile can describethe personality and mindset of the user. The behavioral change platform120 can generate the user's neurological profile by presenting the userwith a questionnaire when the user registers with the behavioral changeplatform 120. The questionnaire can include questions corresponding toresponses to the questions. The user can select the appropriateresponses to each question and based on the selected responses, thebehavioral change platform 120 can generate a neurological profile ofthe user.

In yet other implementations, the emergency flow is generated responsiveto a policy stored in the behavioral change platform 120. For example,the policy may include a predetermined sequence of emergency flows thata user progresses through during their quit journey. The emergency flowsincluded in the policy may be configured to build knowledge, willpower,and skill of the user to enable the user to progress to the next stageof the user's quit journey.

In some implementations, if the user's negative sentiments oremergencies persist after a predetermined number of emergency flows arepresented to the user, a triage flow can be presented to the user. Insome implementations, the triage flow may include involving a medicalprofessional, such as a quit coach or a physician. The triage flow mayalso be presented to the user if the user experiences a medical needafter completing an emergency flow. In some implementations, the triageflow may prepopulate the user's mobile device with the phone number of aquit coach or physician. In some implementations, the triage flowprovided to the user incorporates the cost of care and the severity ofthe user's emergency when selecting a flow to provide. For example, theuser's use of a quit coach or a physician may be costlier then the useof a digital intervention. Users with relatively smaller emergencies(e.g., mild anxiety over quitting) may be provided a triage flow thatincludes a breathing exercise, while a user with a relative more severeemergency (e.g., a physical sickness from withdrawal) can be provided antriage flow that includes calling a physician.

Many undesirable behaviors share similar sets of emergencies andneurobehavioral cascades—e.g., impulses, cravings, negative emotionalresponses. And undesirable patterns of behaviors tend to be collocatedin human populations. As such, mechanisms to mitigate the emergencies ofone behavior in a user may be reused to achieve outcomes in another. Tothis end, the behavioral change platform 120 may prompt the user towardendpoint procession to achieve a second behavioral endpoint when a firstbehavioral endpoint is reached. For example, a user may initiallyattempt to reach a first behavioral endpoint of quitting smoking. Oncethe user maintains cessation of smoking, the behavioral change platform120 may prompt the user to reach a related behavioral endpoint such asto quit drinking. For example, the behavioral change platform 120 mayautomatically select a new behavioral endpoint or the behavioral changeplatform 120 may inform that user that “X % of people that achieve Ymove on to achieve Z.”

FIG. 9 illustrate an example interface 764 of an example mobileapplication providing an abating flow to the user. The example interface764 can be presented to the user responsive to the user selecting theabating flow button 760 a in the interface 758. In some implementations,the interface 764 presents the user with mission selection buttons 766 aand 766 b. Each of the mission selection buttons 766 are associated witha different mission, which begin responsive to the user selecting theassociated mission selection button 766. The missions can include takinga walk, performing a breathing exercise, using nicotine gum, or othermissions described herein. The timer 762 can continue, which cancontinue to show the user the expected amount of time the emergency willcontinue. The interface 764 can include empowerment messages thatprovide quit motivations and provide the user with indications of howmany emergencies the user overcame in the last day, week, or month. Theinterface 764 can also include reflection messages in the form ofbuttons. A first reflection message can state “I smoked,” which the usercan select if the user was not able to overcome the craving and smoked.A reflection message can state “craving gone,” which the user can selectif the user overcomes the craving.

FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrate example interfaces 768 and 772 that aredisplayed responsive to selecting a mission. Once the user has selecteda mission via the mission selection buttons 766 in interface 764, amission interface is presented to the user. The mission interface 768 isan example interface that can be presented to the user when the userselects a breathing exercise mission. The interface 768 can includevisual aids 770 that help the user control their breathing rate. Forexample, the visual aids 770 can include a waveform that illustrateswhen the user should inhale and exhale. A microphone of the mobiledevice executing the mobile application can detect the breathing soundsof the user to determine whether the user is inhaling and exhaling atthe correct pace. The mission interface 772 illustrates an exampleinterface for a mission that includes sipping tea rather than smoking acigarette. The mission interface 772 can provide information about thebenefits of tea and can also provide an input space where the user caninput notes about the type of tea the user sipped.

FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate an example interface 774 and 776 that aredisplayed responsive to the user selecting the delaying flow button 760c in interface 758. The interface 774 is initially presented to the userand includes a countdown timer 778, which can be a form of a reactmessage. The countdown timer 778 indicates to the user how much time isremaining until the user is allowed to engage in the undesired habit.The amount of time from which the countdown timer 778 counts down can bedynamically generated by a learning algorithm using the user's pastinteractions with the behavioral change platform 120. In someimplementations, the delay flow button 760 c is only present if the userhas not yet met the daily quota of the rationing flow. The delay flowgives the user “permission” to smoke and trains the user graduallylengthen the time until gratification. For example, the first time theuser selects the delaying flow button 760 c in a day, the countdowntimer 778 may start at 30 seconds. The second time the user selects thedelaying flow button 760 c, the countdown timer 778 may start at 1minute. The interface 774 can present acknowledgement messages such as“it's ok to smoke” and “give yourself some time between a craving andlighting up, we will help you extend the space between craving andsmoking over time.” In some implementations, the countdown timer 778 cancontinue to run after reaching 0 seconds and until the user begins tosmoke to determine a length of time that the user was able to resistsmoking.

FIG. 11B illustrates the example interface 776 that is presented to theuser when the countdown timer 778 reaches 0. The interface 776 canpresent the user with empowerment messages such as showing the longestthe user waiting to engage in the undesired behavior and showingmotivations for quitting.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example interface 780 that is presented to theuser when the user selects the rationing flow button 760 in interface758. The interface 780 can include a quota 782 of times the user isallowed to engage in the undesired behaviors for a predetermined timeperiod. For example, the interface 780 illustrates that the quotaincludes 15 cigarettes. The user has already consumed 10 cigarettes and5 additional cigarettes remain in the quota. As described above, whenthe user smokes a cigarette through via the delay flow, the smokedcigarette can be deducted from the rationing quota 782. In someimplementations, the application also enables the user to inputadditional cigarettes that were smoked independently of the user's useof the application. For example, the user may report to the check-inmanager 720 that the user smoked two cigarettes that were not inresponse to a rationing flow or a delaying flow. The quota 782 can be aform of an acknowledgment message. The interface 780 can also include aconnect message that indicates was a percentage of the quota remainedunused.

Once the emergency flow is completed by the user, the applicationinterfacing with the behavioral change platform 120 can present anotification to the user requesting an indication of whether theemergency flow was successful in helping mitigate the user's emergency.If the user did not overcome the emergency the user can be representedwith the emergency button, such that the user may immediately enter anew emergency workflow.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example interface 784 that can be presented tothe user at the completion of a workflow that mitigated an emergency.The interface 784 can include an acknowledge message 786 stating “youovercame a craving.” In some implementations, the interface 784 caninclude interface buttons with connecting messages that enable the userto share their completion with the user's supports. The interface 784can also include a connect message 788 that indicates the number oftimes the user has overcome an emergency in a given day. The interface784 also includes two reacting messages in the form of reaction buttons790 a and 790 b. The first react button 790 a takes the user to a “quitjournal” where the user can make comments on the process of quitting andovercoming the present emergency. The second react button 790 b takesthe user to an assessment interface where the user can memorialize theprocesses of quitting. In some implementations, the assessment interfaceenables the use to provide their physical, physiological, and emotionalstate to the behavioral change platform 120, which may also be used atleast implementations of the method 742 to predict the best emergencyflow for the method 742 or to predict when the emergency flow should bepresented to the user.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example assessment interface 792. The assessmentinterface 792 can enable the user to report and deal with theirsentiments generated during each cessation emergency. In someimplementations, dealing with the users' sentiments after a behavioralendpoint has been achieved is important for preventing relapse orregression to the undesirable set of behaviors. The interface 792 caninclude an input box 794 where the user can select the physiological orpsychological adjective that best describes their experience in themoment. The interface 792 can also include a number of quick inputbuttons 796 that are each associated with common states the user mighthave experienced. The states can include, but are not limited to,cravings and other impulses, anxiety, depression, headache, abnormalsleeping, lack of focus, distracted, restless, abnormal breathing,blurred vision, weak, and pounding ears.

Referring again to FIG. 5, the method 742 can also include updating theuser database when the user completes an emergency flow (BLOCK 750). Theuser's profile in the user database of the behavioral change platform120 can be updated to include which mission and emergency flow wascompleted. Other data such as whether the user was successful inavoiding the undesirable behavior, a time the cessation emergencyoccurred, and a location where the cessation emergency occurred. Asdescribed above, the behavioral change platform 120 can predict whattype of and when the emergency flow should be presented to the user.Updating the user's profile with the data gathering during thepresentation of each emergency flow, enables the behavioral changeplatform 120 to adapt to the user's quit journey. For example, a machinelearning algorithm can be used to analyze the data from each emergencyflow presentation to enable the selection of the emergency flow that ismost likely to mitigate the user's emergency or to best select a timethat the emergency button should be presented to the user.

It should be appreciated that the dynamic content delivery andpresentation management platform 820 is similar to the behavioral changeplatform 120 described with respect to FIG. 4

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to specific embodiments, it should be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the inventiondescribed in this disclosure.

While this specification contains many specific embodiment details,these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of anyinventions or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions offeatures specific to particular embodiments of particular inventions.Certain features described in this specification in the context ofseparate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a singleembodiment. Conversely, various features described in the context of asingle embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodimentsseparately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover, althoughfeatures may be described above as acting in certain combinations andeven initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimedcombination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and theclaimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation ofa subcombination.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particularorder, this should not be understood as requiring that such operationsbe performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, orthat all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirableresults. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processingmay be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various systemcomponents in the embodiments described above should not be understoodas requiring such separation in all embodiments, and it should beunderstood that the described program components and systems cangenerally be integrated in a single software product or packaged intomultiple software products.

References to “or” may be construed as inclusive so that any termsdescribed using “or” may indicate any of a single, more than one, andall of the described terms.

Thus, particular embodiments of the subject matter have been described.Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. In somecases, the actions recited in the claims can be performed in a differentorder and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processesdepicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require theparticular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirableresults. In certain embodiments, multitasking and parallel processingmay be advantageous.

Having described certain embodiments of the methods and systems, it willnow become apparent to one of skill in the art that other embodimentsincorporating the concepts of the invention may be used. It should beunderstood that the systems described above may provide multiple ones ofany or each of those components and these components may be provided oneither a standalone machine or, in some embodiments, on multiplemachines in a distributed system. The systems and methods describedabove may be implemented as a method, apparatus or article ofmanufacture using programming and/or engineering techniques to producesoftware, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof In addition,the systems and methods described above may be provided as one or morecomputer-readable programs embodied on or in one or more articles ofmanufacture. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein isintended to encompass code or logic accessible from and embedded in oneor more computer-readable devices, firmware, programmable logic, memorydevices (e.g., EEPROMs, ROMs, PROMs, RAMs, SRAMs, etc.), hardware (e.g.,integrated circuit chip, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA),Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc.), electronicdevices, a computer readable non-volatile storage unit (e.g., CD-ROM,floppy disk, hard disk drive, etc.). The article of manufacture may beaccessible from a file server providing access to the computer-readableprograms via a network transmission line, wireless transmission media,signals propagating through space, radio waves, infrared signals, etc.The article of manufacture may be a flash memory card or a magnetictape. The article of manufacture includes hardware logic as well assoftware or programmable code embedded in a computer readable mediumthat is executed by a processor. In general, the computer-readableprograms may be implemented in any programming language, such as LISP,PERL, C, C++, C#, PROLOG, or in any byte code language such as JAVA. Thesoftware programs may be stored on or in one or more articles ofmanufacture as object code.

What is claimed:
 1. A method, comprising: identifying, by a serverincluding one or more processors, a profile associated with anapplication executing on a remote computing device; determining, by theserver, using the profile, a first set of routines, each routine of thefirst set of routines specifying a first action to be performed via theapplication executing on the remote computing device; transmitting, bythe server, a first request for application activity update, the firstrequest including instructions to provide a first trigger on the remotecomputing device, the remote computing device configured to provide oneor more actions to be performed via the remote computing deviceresponsive to detecting an activation of the first trigger; receiving,by the server, from the remote computing device and responsive to theactivation of the first trigger on the remote computing device, aresponse including relating to at least one action for one of the firstset of routines performed via the remote computing application;determining, by the server, using the profile, the response, and thefirst set of routines, a second set of routines to include into a secondrequest for application activity update, each of the second set ofroutines specifying a second action to be performed via the remotecomputing device; and transmitting, by the server, the second requestfor application activity update, the second request includinginstructions to provide a second trigger on the remote computing deviceto perform at least one of the second set of routines.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising generating, by the server, a responseprediction model for selecting routines specifying actions to beperformed via the remote computing device to include in requests forapplication activity updates, and wherein determining the first set ofroutines further comprises applying the response prediction model to theprofile to determine the first set of routines, and wherein determiningthe second set of routines further comprises applying the responseprediction model to the profile, the response, and the first set ofroutines to determine the second set of routines.
 3. The method of claim1, further comprising generating, by the server, a probability ofperforming at least one action for one of the second set of routines viathe remote computing devices based on the profile, the response, and thefirst set of routines; and wherein determining the second set ofroutines further comprises determining the second set of routines basedon the determined probability of performing at least one action.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein determining the first set of routines furthercomprises selecting the first set of routines in accordance with abehavioral change policy to perform via the remote computing device; andwherein determining the second set of routines further comprisesselecting the second set of routines in accordance with the behavioralchange policy, the behavior change policy specifying selection of thesecond set of routines subsequent to the response to the first set ofroutines.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the second setof routines further comprises: identifying a first routine typecorresponding to the first set of routines; and selecting a secondroutine type corresponding to the second set of routines based on theprofile, the response, and the first routine type of the first set ofroutines.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the firstrequest further comprises transmitting the first request including theinstructions to provide a first set of triggers on the remote computingdevice, each trigger of the first set indicating one or more subsequenttriggers to be provided in response to an activation of the trigger. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the response further comprisesreceiving the response including content generated by the remotecomputing device responsive in accordance with the activation of thefirst trigger, the content relating to the at least one action for oneof the first set of routines performed via the remote computingapplication.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, bythe server from the remote computing device, a request to provideroutines to be performed via the remote computing device, the requestidentifying a condition; determining, by the server, based on thecondition identified in the response, a third set of routines to includeinto a third request for application activity update, each of the thirdset of routines specifying a third action to be performed via the remotecomputing device; and transmitting, by the server, the third request forapplication activity update, the third request including instructions toprovide a third trigger on the remote computing device to perform atleast one of the third set of routines.
 9. The method of claim 1,further comprising updating, by the server, responsive to receiving theresponse, the profile using the response relating to at least one actionfor one of the first set of routines performed via the application. 10.The method of claim 1, further comprising logging, by the server, ontoan activity log for the remote computing device, content of the responsereceived responsive to the activation of the first trigger on the remotecomputing device and a timestamp corresponding to when the response wasreceived.
 11. A system, comprising: at least one server having one ormore processors, configured to: identify a profile associated with anapplication executing on a remote computing device; determine, using theprofile, a first set of routines, each routine of the first set ofroutines specifying a first action to be performed via the applicationexecuting on the remote computing device; transmit a first request forapplication activity update, the first request including instructions toprovide a first trigger on the remote computing device, the remotecomputing device configured to provide one or more actions to beperformed via the remote computing device responsive to detecting anactivation of the first trigger; receive, from the remote computingdevice and responsive to the activation of the first trigger on theremote computing device, a response including relating to at least oneaction for one of the first set of routines performed via the remotecomputing application; determine, using the profile, the response, andthe first set of routines, a second set of routines to include into asecond request for application activity update, each of the second setof routines specifying a second action to be performed via the remotecomputing device; and transmit the second request for applicationactivity update, the second request including instructions to provide asecond trigger on the remote computing device to perform at least one ofthe second set of routines.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the atleast one server is further configured to generate a response predictionmodel for selecting routines specifying actions to be performed via theremote computing device to include in requests for application activityupdates; apply the response prediction model to the profile to determinethe first set of routines; and apply the response prediction model tothe profile, the response, and the first set of routines to determinethe second set of routines.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the atleast one server is further configured to generate a probability ofperforming at least one action for one of the second set of routines viathe remote computing devices based on the profile, the response, and thefirst set of routines; and determine the second set of routines based onthe determined probability of performing at least one action.
 14. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the at least one server is furtherconfigured to select the first set of routines in accordance with abehavioral change policy to perform via the remote computing device; andselect the second set of routines in accordance with the behavioralchange policy, the behavior change policy specifying selection of thesecond set of routines subsequent to the response to the first set ofroutines.
 15. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one server isfurther configured to determining the second set of routines by:identifying a first routine type corresponding to the first set ofroutines; and selecting a second routine type corresponding to thesecond set of routines based on the profile, the response, and the firstroutine type of the first set of routines.
 16. The system of claim 11,wherein the at least one server is further configured to transmit thefirst request including the instructions to provide a first set oftriggers on the remote computing device, each trigger of the first setindicating one or more subsequent triggers to be provided in response toan activation of the trigger.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein the atleast one server is further configured to receive the response includingcontent generated by the remote computing device responsive inaccordance with the activation of the first trigger, the contentrelating to the at least one action for one of the first set of routinesperformed via the remote computing application.
 18. The system of claim11, wherein the at least one server is further configured to receive,from the remote computing device, a request to provide routines to beperformed via the remote computing device, the request identifying acondition; determine, based on the condition identified in the response,a third set of routines to include into a third request for applicationactivity update, each of the third set of routines specifying a thirdaction to be performed via the remote computing device; and transmit thethird request for application activity update, the third requestincluding instructions to provide a third trigger on the remotecomputing device to perform at least one of the third set of routines.19. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one server is furtherconfigured to update, responsive to receiving the response, the profileusing the response relating to at least one action for one of the firstset of routines performed via the application.
 20. The system of claim11, wherein the at least one server is further configured to log, ontoan activity log for the remote computing device, content of the responsereceived responsive to the activation of the first trigger on the remotecomputing device and a timestamp corresponding to when the response wasreceived.